Jamie Overton has returned to England’s squad for the final Test against India, which starts at the Oval on Thursday, to provide cover should the seamers who toiled through the drawn fourth fixture fail to recover in time.
Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse have both played the first four games of the series, while Jofra Archer returned to the Test side after a four-year absence to play the most recent two – and had never previously bowled as many overs in a single game as the 49.1 he laboured through at Old Trafford. In the Lord’s Test Ben Stokes bowled 44 overs, a number he has bettered only once in the last decade – in Barbados six years ago.
“You look at how long we’ve been out in the field and the overs we’ve bowled as a bowling unit – everyone will be pretty tired, so there’ll be an assessment of everyone,” Stokes said on Sunday. “These recovery days will be pretty important, and we might have to make a few decisions to get some fresh legs in. It will be two or three days’ recovery for everyone, and we’ll give everyone the best chance we can. I’m not going to hide from the fact it has been tough for the bowlers.”
Overton was in the squad for the first three games of the series, having last been called up for in 2022, when he made his only previous appearance against New Zealand at Headingley. He was released before the fourth fixture of this series to play in the County Championship, where he bowled just 14 overs for Surrey in a draw against Yorkshire at Scarborough. The squad contains two other seamers who did not play at Old Trafford in Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson, who has not played a senior first-team game since the one-off Test against Zimbabwe in May but who continued his recovery from a hamstring injury by playing for Surrey’s second XI against Somerset seconds last week – he bowled 30 overs, taking three wickets.
Quick Guide
England v India: squads for the fifth and final Test
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England Ben Stokes (capt), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Liam Dawson, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes
India Shubman Gill (capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Kuldeep Yadav, Anshul Kamboj, Arshdeep Singh, Narayan Jagadeesan
England lead the series 2-1
First Test, Headingley England won by five wickets
Second Test, Edgbaston India won by 336 runs
Third Test, Lord’s England won by 22 runs
Fourth Test, Emirates Old Trafford Match drawn
Fifth Test, The Kia Oval Takes place 31 July-4 Aug
India have confirmed that Rishabh Pant sustained a fracture in his right foot when he was hit by a Chris Woakes delivery on the opening day at Old Trafford. He has been ruled out of the final Test and replaced by Narayan Jagadeesan, a 29-year-old wicketkeeper with a first-class batting average of 47.50 who has never represented his country at senior level. Dhruv Jurel, who stood in as wicketkeeper in the last two games because of injuries to Pant, remains in the squad.