The spearhead of English bowling line-up, James Anderson has been named the vice-captain of England for the Ashes Down Under. He will replace Ben Stokes from this post, who is undergoing official assessment of Avon and Somerset Police since September after a brawl outside a nightclub in Bristol.

Former skipper Alastair Cook and pacer Stuart Broad were the other contenders for this post, but the 506-wicket experienced gets a nod ahead of them.

Earlier, Anderson was seen ready to accept this proposal and said “It’s (the vice-captaincy) not something I’ve thought about. My responsibility as a senior player is to bring experience to the group. Myself, Alastair and Stuart Broad all (do that). There are a lot of players on this tour who have not played in an Ashes series before, and not toured Australia before. So our job is to try and help as much as we can.”

England is facing some injury woes ahead of their Ashes campaign; as many as three players have been injured. Moeen Ali and Steven Finn picked injury two days before first tour game, which led the latter to rule out of Test series. Uncapped Tom Curran asked to join the squad in Australia.

Afterwards, young and dynamic pacer Jake Ball suffered an injury during the passage of second warm-up game. He is unlikely to take part in the remaining of four-day game in Adelaide.

The Ashes will commence from November 23 in Brisbane’s Gabba.