A spinner for the Proteas tour
England named a 15-man squad this morning for the three-Test series in South Africa, and the surprise is Nottinghamshire left-armer Liam Patterson-White, who has never played a Test. He took 42 wickets at 25.11 last summer, more than any other spinner in Division One of the County Championship, and added 474 runs in 14 appearances. A year earlier he had 26 wickets and 540 runs in 11 games as Notts won the title.
Jacob Bethell is back after knee surgery kept him out of the 3-0 sweep of Pakistan in August and September. It is the first series for Stephen Fleming as head coach.
no renewal
Free for 2 weeks.
Four players, three places
The batting order is where the tough calls sit. Jordan Cox stood in for Bethell at No. 3 and made a half-century in each Test against Pakistan, at Headingley, Lord’s and Edgbaston. That leaves Cox, Bethell, Emilio Gay and Dan Lawrence fighting for what looks like three spots.
Gay has three fifties in his first six Tests since replacing the dropped Zak Crawley, but if he misses out, Cox or Bethell could open alongside Ben Duckett. Lawrence was recalled after Ben Stokes retired from international cricket, and he doubled as the main spinner while England ran an all-pace attack against Pakistan.
South Africa off-spinner Simon Harmer took ten wickets in the match as the Proteas beat Australia in Cape Town to win that series 2-1. England may decide a specialist slow bowler is worth the gamble.
Absentees and schedule
Josh Tongue will miss the first Test to return home for the birth of a child, and Brydon Carse is lined up to replace him. Sam Curran is unavailable for the series because of his wedding.
England open in Johannesburg on December 17, play the Boxing Day Test at Centurion and finish in Cape Town from January 3. Three one-day internationals follow, in Paarl and Bloemfontein.
Discover the rest of our sports news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply