With just around a week’s rest between the end of the recent three-match Test series against Sri Lanka and the start of the upcoming five-match ODI series over Australia, the England Cricket Board (ECB) has decided to rest one of the premier pacers, Gus Atkinson, as they also look forward to their upcoming three-match Test trip to Pakistan and the winter trip to New Zealand.
The Surrey bowler, making his debut in July, picked up 12 wickets in his very first red-ball game at Lord’s against West Indies and went on to collect 34 scalps in six games of the summer. He and Chris Woakes were the only two pacers who played the entire summer and are on course to make the upcoming trips.
England has decided to manage the workload of the pacer, as his speed has dropped significantly from the start of the summer to the end, while he also spent some time off the field during the third day of the Oval Test with a tight quad, before coming back and bowling 11 overs in the fourth innings.
Olly Stone replaces Gus Atkinson in England’s ODI squad vs Australia
The team management has decided to rest Atkinson for the upcoming five 50-over games against Australia, as another expressive pacer, Olly Stone, will link up with the squad. The 30-year-old made a comeback in the red-ball format after two years and bowled sharply with an incredible pacer in the two London Tests.
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In eight ODIs Stone has featured, the fast bowler has picked up eight scalps at an average of nearly 40 and a strike rate of 39.7, with a best of 4/85, while his very last game of the format came more than a year ago during their trip to South Africa.
The schedule hasn’t been pleasant for the all-format England players, as the fifth ODI against the Mitchell Marsh-led side in Bristol is supposed to end on September 29, just eight days before the start of the first Test against Pakistan in Multan, making it quite hard for the pacers to get enough rest during the period. They will, however, enjoy a month’s break before their New Zealand trip before Christmas.
The Ben Stokes-led side is already with their expressive pacer, Mark Wood, who has been ruled out for the rest of the year with an elbow injury and has been working to reshape their pace attack after the retirements of Stuart Broad and James Anderson in both edges of the two summers.
“I think he’s okay. He’s got a couple of weeks off now just to refresh and move forward. He’s able to put his feet up now, but I think the way he bowled today and just chatting to him, he feels like it feels better today than it did when he first felt it so, that’s a positive for us. Fingers crossed, he’s all good.” The stand-in red-ball captain for England in the Sri Lanka series, Ollie Pope, expressed at the end of the Test summer.
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There is another white-ball trip for England to the Caribbean, which starts just a couple of days at the end of the New Zealand tour. The player for England is the most vital part at the moment, as five players from the ODI squad, Harry Brook, Ben Duckett, Josh Hull, Matt Potts, and Jamie Smith, are playing Test matches.
England’s Updated ODI Squad vs Australia
Jos Buttler (captain), Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Jordan Cox, Ben Duckett, Josh Hull, Will Jacks, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Jamie Smith, Olly Stone, Reece Topley, John Turner