England have dropped Jonny Bairstow in their Test squad for the tour of New Zealand. The team for the two-Test series includes four uncapped players, as the selectors named on Monday (September 23).
Opening batsman Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley have earned their maiden call-ups, along with the Lancashire teammates, fast bowler Saqib Mahmood and leg spinner Matt Parkinson. Surrey middle-order batsman Ollie Pope has been recalled to the side.
Sibley has been impressive with his batting technique in the country, scoring 1,324 Division One runs this summer, including five hundred and five half-centuries, a highest score of 244 and sitting with a remarkable average of 69.68. Crawley, 21, has shown immense promise in all formats, with 820 runs and two centuries to his name this season.
Mahmood and Parkinson took 21 and 19 scalps respectively in Division Two and are awarded on their promise as performance. Both are awarded a place in the T20 side for the five-match series which is to get underway the tour on November 1 as branch of an experimental 15 which sees a more of the “1st XI” players rested.
James Anderson continues to pull through from a calf scare and will effort towards proving his match fitness for the South African series in December. Jason Roy, who had a horror of the ashes, has also been shown a way out of the squad. With Bairstow’s departure, Jos Buttler will keep the wickets.
The test keeper-batsman averaged just 23.77 in the recently concluded Ashes series and also producing only three hundreds from 56 innings(since the start of 2017). He does, however, make the T20 squad.
The T20 regulars Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer have been rested, with first-time call-ups for Tom Banton who scored 549 runs in this season’s T20 competition. Pat Brown picked 17 wickets in the T20 Blast, Mahmood and Parkinson. Sam Billings, Malan and James Vince are also included, with the world cup winning skipper Eoin Morgan leading the white ball team once again.
Test team: J Root (c), J Archer, Stuart Broad, R Burns, J Buttler (wk), Z Crawley, S Curran, J Denly, J Leach, S Mahmood, M Parkinson, O Pope, D Sibley, B Stokes(Vc), C Woakes
T20I team: E Morgan (c), J Bairstow (wk), T Banton, S Billings, P Brown, S Curran, T Curran, J Denly, L Gregory, C Jordan, S Mahmood, D Malan, M Parkinson, A Rashid, J Vince
