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James Vince and Gary Ballance will be the chief beneficiaries when England name their Ashes squad on Wednesday after the selectors recalled the two batsmen and cut Tom Westley.
A 16-man squad will be announced at The Oval before the fourth one-dayer against West Indies with an uncapped trio of Craig Overton, Ben Foakes and Mason Crane also in the party for the five-Test series in Australia that begins in Brisbane on 23 November.
Ben Stokes, the vice-captain, retains his place despite his arrest in Bristol on Morning morning but beyond this it is the selection of Hampshire’s Vince that stands out most, coming 12 months after a run of seven Tests during which the right-hander averaged just 19 in the two series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, with a top score of 43 and a propensity to nick off. Since then Vince has hardly pulled up trees in county cricket – this season has brought 596 championship runs at 34 – but the 26-year-old has been backed for the No3 position in the hope that his game is suited to the bouncy pitches of Australia, with Westley dropping out following a tough first summer of five caps and one half-century.
Ballance had started the summer in the side – his third spell at international level – after a bumper beginning to the county campaign but broke his finger against South Africa in the second Test at Trent Bridge and was replaced by Westley. But the captain, Joe Root, and the selectors have kept faith with the left-hander, who will challenge Dawid Malan for the No5 position.
Mark Wood’s failure to prove his fitness after a heel injury and the stress fracture to the lower back sustained by Toby Roland-Jones at the end of an impressive maiden summer at Test level has opened up two seam-bowling spots, with Nottinghamshire’s Jake Ball and Overton coming in – the latter after taking 46 wickets at 22 for Somerset this year.
Surrey’s Foakes provides back up to Jonny Bairstow behind the stumps, having shadowed the squad at various points this summer and edged out the one-day wicketkeeper Jos Buttler. Crane, the Hampshire leg-spinner, meanwhile slots in as support to Moeen Ali but could come into the side should conditions dictate.
Crane, 20, thrived when playing grade cricket in Sydney last winter and eventually broke into the New South Wales state side in the Sheffield Shield as their first overseas cricket since the great Imran Khan back in 1984-85.
Predicted England squad Root, Cook, Stoneman, Malan, Ballance, Vince, Moeen, Crane, Foakes, Bairstow, Stokes, Woakes, Broad, Anderson, Ball, Overton.
(GUARDIAN)
