Injuries force England to drop Zak Crawley, include two youngsters for Sri Lanka Tests as squad announced
Crawley out, Lawrence included as England name squad for Sri Lanka Tests
England will be without their star opener Zak Crawley and uncapped seamer Dillon Pennington due to injuries for the three Tests against Sri Lanka starting August 21. While Crawley is out with a fractured finger, Pennington will miss the Test series with a hamstring injury he sustained while playing in The Hundred. The hosts have included Dan Lawrence and Olly Stone as Crawley and Pennington’s replacements, respectively.
Crawley fractured his little finger in the right hand while attempting to take a slip catch during the final Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston last week. His fractured finger rules him out of The Hundred and Sri Lanka Tests, with the opener eyeing a return during the away Pakistan Tests in October.
Lawrence to open in SL Tests
Even though Test Captain Ben Stokes opened with Ben Duckett in the second innings of the last West Indies Test, hitting the fastest fifty for an English player (in 24 balls), Lawrence will replace him at the top for the upcoming three Tests.
Lawrence has been England’s back-up batter for over a year, having last played a Test under Joe Root in 2022. In his 11 Tests thus far, Lawrence has batted from number 3 to 7 but never opened.
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Meanwhile, Jordan Cox, 23, is picked as the back-up batter for the Sri Lanka series. The right-hander was among runs since his Essex debut in the County Championship this season, scoring 763 runs at 69.36, including three hundred. He returned to competitive cricket lately after his appendix operation, playing for the Oval Invincibles in The Hundred. Cox might also be England’s spare wicketkeeper for the Pakistan Tests.
"I've been thinking more about the white-ball side of it," Cox said after his maiden Test call-up. "I just thought there are so many good players out there, and I thought, I'm not going to be in that yet, if ever, so to get this call was pretty awesome."
Ben Stokes (captain), Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jordan Cox, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Matthew Potts and Olly Stone
Schedule –
- 1stTest (August 21-25) – Manchester
- 2ndTest (August 29-September 2) – Lord’s
- 3rdTest (September 6-10) – The Oval
(With inputs from agencies)
