England have dropped Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes and Jack Leach for the upcoming Test series against the West Indies as they look to refresh the team ahead of next year’s Ashes in Australia.
The changes include three uncapped players – wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith and seam bowlers Gus Atkinson and Dillon Pennington – in a 14-man squad for the first two Tests at Lord’s and Trent Bridge.
Young off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, who took 17 wickets at 33.75 on the tour of India earlier this year, is included ahead of Leach, who missed the final three Tests of that series with a knee injury. Leach has since returned for Somerset but has only taken four wickets at 72 in three County Championship matches.
The series opener at Lord’s, which starts on Wednesday 10 July, will be the final match of James Anderson’s glittering career, with the 41-year-old told by coach Brendon McCullum last month he would not be considered beyond this series as England plan for the 2025-26 Ashes series Down Under.
To that end Bairstow, who failed to reach 40 in any innings of that series in India, was informed on his return from England’s T20 World Cup campaign in the Caribbean over the weekend that he was dropped.
The 34-year-old’s final innings of that tournament, a three-ball duck in the semi-final defeat by India in Guyana last Thursday, could well be his last in international cricket, although England may yet decide he still has a role to play in white-ball cricket.
Smith, 23, is an interesting pick for the wicketkeeping role, chiefly because he rarely keeps wicket in first-class cricket for his county Surrey, given Foakes is first choice at The Oval.
However, he is an aggressive batter who averages 40.80 in first-class cricket and fits the Bazball profile down to a tee. This summer he is averaging 50.70 and has hit five 50-plus scores already, including one century.
England Test Squad for West Indies series
- Ben Stokes (Durham, captain)
- James Anderson (Lancashire) (First Test only)
- Gus Atkinson (Surrey)
- Shoaib Bashir (Somerset)
- Harry Brook (Yorkshire)
- Zak Crawley (Kent)
- Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire)
- Dan Lawrence (Surrey)
- Dillon Pennington (Nottinghamshire)
- Ollie Pope (Surrey)
- Matthew Potts (Durham)
- Joe Root (Yorkshire)
- Jamie Smith (Surrey)
- Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)
England vs West Indies Test schedule in full
1st Test: 10-14 July 2024, Lord’s Cricket Ground, London
2nd Test: 18-22 July 2024, Trent Bridge, Nottingham
3rd Test: 26-30 July 2024, Edgbaston, Birmingham
Smith also kept wicket in two ODIs against Ireland at the end of last summer, but doing it at Test level with all the accompanied scrutiny will be a huge step up.
Foakes is undoubtedly the best wicketkeeper in the country but his limitations with the bat were exposed during the 4-1 series defeat in India, where his inability to counterattack often left England unable to fight their way out of tight situations.
This was most acute during the second innings of the fourth Test in Ranchi, when Foakes, who has admitted: “I’m not very Bazball”, scored 17 in 76 balls when England were fighting to set India a challenging total to stay in the series.
Pennington, 25, who joined Nottinghamshire this year from Worcestershire, has taken 29 Championship wickets this summer at an average of 23.03.
Surrey seamer Gus Atkinson is the only other uncapped player included but he was an unused squad member on that tour of India earlier this year.
Durham seamer Matt Potts is also recalled, as is Chris Woakes for the first time since he starred during last summer’s home Ashes series.
England’s director of cricket Rob Key, said: “The first Test of the summer is always a special moment, but it will be extra poignant with it being Jimmy’s [Anderson] last Test before he retires.
“He has given everything to the sport since his Test debut in 2003. We all would like to wish him well as he walks out at Lord’s for the last time for England.”