Toby Roland-Jones and Gary Ballance included in the squad as England spoke on Thursday (7th July) ahead of the first Test against Pakistan.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Alastair Cook, England cricket captain (Q: on the selections of Toby Roland-Jones and Gary Ballance in the squad for the first Test against Pakistan)

"Clearly Jimmy (Anderson) has been touch and go for a while and he is making really good progress but just from the selectors point of view he isn't going to be quite ready for that first Test match. Hopefully he'll be there for the second. Toby (Roland-Jones) has had a really good summer so far. He has been there or there abouts for the last two years, or three years or so at the top of the bowling stats and he has improved a lot and I think he's a very decent bowler. So it's good to see him about the squad for the first time, it must be great news for him. And then Gary (Ballance) has come back into the fold and he has a very good record at International cricket and he is a very robust kind of character. He might have felt that he was unlucky to get dropped at one stage and he is on his way back and I think that people, and the selectors, like what he can do in international cricket."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Alastair Cook, England cricket captain (Q: on moving Joe Root up to third in the batting line-up)

"Well I hope he hasn't just found out. Clearly it is a conversation we have had over the last week or so, even a bit longer than that. I think it's the right thing to do. He is our best player and it is quite an Australian thing to do in one sense that the best player bats at three and we haven't always got off to our best starts over the last 18 months or so, so moving him up there hopefully will (steady that) and there is no reason why he won't continue scoring the same amount of runs as he does at four."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Alastair Cook, England cricket captain

"Absolutely. He was given a punishment at that time, he has had to live with the consequences of what he has done and he tarnished cricket for that time. I'm not saying anything that is out of order at all. He has served his punishment like anyway. He comes back, he's a fine bowler and it's going to be a great challenge for us as a side. I think the one thing that people have forgotten about is that clearly the English Pakistan relationship has seen some controversial moments in Test series over the last 20 years but the last series that we played against them in Abu Dhabi, I thought that both sides got it spot on the way we played our cricket. Yes it was tough cricket and we didn't win the series but I thought that the spirit in both sides (that they) showed towards each other, and the respect they showed towards each other was the right level and hopefully even with a bit more external stuff here about Mohammad coming back, hopefully we can continue that kind of relationship as I think it's good for the game of cricket."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Alastair Cook, England cricket captain

"One thing I think we can hope for this series is that the cricket is what we all talk about. That's what we really want to do. For probably the first time for a series against Pakistan in England, we're talking about two very good sides and I think we all see the strengths of Pakistan this time, obviously excellently led by Misbah (Ul Haq) and they seem very united and I think we're going to have a really good Test series and I think we're always going to back ourselves in our home conditions. Past records suggest that. But I think that it's two really evenly matched sides and I just hope that we can talk about cricket and peoples skills or someone taking a really good catch or a match winning hundred. That kind of stuff I think is really important because that is sometimes, certainly in this series against Pakistan, a lot of external stuff is always spoken about and that overshadows actually how good they are as a side, how good we are as a side and people enjoy the rivalry and hopefully, for once, we can have a four Test match series where we talk about sides winning games of cricket."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Stuart Broad

"Yes I mean it's been quite a big story. I suppose the last time he walked off this field behind us, there was a lot of controversy about it. He's been given a ban and he's served his ban and now he is back playing the game. I've certainly got no problems playing against him, coming into this series. I think now is the time for us as a team, we have talked about it quite a bit in the last few weeks, and now we need to look at him as a cricketer because he's a very skilful bowler and we need to know exactly what threats he brings to our top order with the new ball and lower order with an older ball. And it's very important that we put all of our energies into learning about him more as a cricketer because we know that there will be this side show of his first Test back at the home of cricket after what happened last time which was massive news and people don't forget about that sort of thing. But us as a team have to be very mentally strong to make sure that we're right on the money come Thursday morning."