England have added pacer Jamie Overton to the squad for the fifth Test against India. The inclusion comes in the wake of a short turnaround between the fourth and the fifth Test, which is scheduled to be played at The Oval on July 31. Overton, who was playing for Surrey last week in the County Championship, has only played one Test for England, his debut against New Zealand at Headingley in 2022.
After the toil the England pacers took during the fourth Test, having bowled 257 overs across the match, Ben Stokes said that England could “make a few decisions to get some fresh legs in” for the final Test. Besides bringing in Overton, the hosts haven’t made any changes to the squad that played India at Old Trafford.
“If you look at how long we’ve been out in the field and the overs that we bowled as a bowling unit, everyone is going to be pretty sore and pretty tired going into the last game of the series,” Stokes said. “There’ll be an assessment of everyone, and hopefully we can use these next two or three days’ rest period wisely and then have to make a decision.
“These recovery days are going to be pretty important, and we might have to make a few decisions to get some fresh legs in. But that won’t be decided until we get closer to the last game.”
In total, England have bowled over 900 overs with pretty much the same bowling attack throughout the series so far. Ben Stokes, Brydon Carse, and Chris Woakes have featured in all four Tests, while Jofra Archer has played two on the bounce on his comeback after four years. But with plenty of replacement options available, the possibility of an overhaul of the bowling attack isn’t off the table.
Gus Atkinson is almost a certain starter to play the game, which could see either Carse or Woakes sidelined. Atkinson took three wickets playing for Surrey’s 2nd XI in London last week, which was his first appearance after picking up a hamstring injury during the one-off Test against Zimbabwe in May.
Josh Tongue is another option that England could avail. Tongue was dropped after the second Test to make space for Archer’s return at Lord’s, but his 11-wicket tally in two games makes his case stronger to be selected.
England cancelled their training session to give the players more recovery time. The team is likely to have a session on the eve of the game at The Oval.
“We generally like to get our team out a couple of days before, but we might have to just take a little bit longer going into this last game, because we want to give everyone as long as we possibly can to be able to recover,” Stokes had said earlier.
England squad for the fifth Test against India
Ben Stokes (capt), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Liam Dawson, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes
