England turned up at Headingley in a must-win game and emerged victorious, winning the third Test against Australia by three wickets to keep the Ashes alive. The fourth Test of the series starts on July 19 in Manchester.

England have named an unchanged 14-member squad for the Old Trafford Test. They had a few selection headaches coming into the third Test and the questions have only increased coming out of it.

There were calls that England might bring back Ben Foakes to take the wicketkeeping gloves off Jonny Bairstow, or some other reinforcement from the County Championship to take up the No.3 spot, but none of that has happened.

The selectors have shown faith in the current crop of players, with Bairstow, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Robinson, and Josh Tongue, all keeping their places. Lawrence has been in the squad as a spare batter since the first match at Edgbaston, but has yet to play a game.

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England’s plans were disrupted when Ollie Pope was ruled out of the series after the second Test with a dislocated shoulder. That led them to promote Harry Brook to No.3 in the first innings of the Headingley Test, a plan that didn’t work. Moeen Ali then came in at first drop in the second innings and he failed as well.

The No.3 conundrum will be the biggest headache for the English management to take care of before the fourth Test. Mark Wood and Chris Woakes, both of whom played their first Test under the Ben Stokes-Brendon McCullum leadership, made match-winning contributions with both bat and ball, and should keep their place in the XI in all likelihood.

James Anderson was rested for the third Test and is expected to be back for the fourth, especially given it is being played at Old Trafford, his home ground. However, he hasn’t been in good form with the ball and with the Ashes on the line, there’s a possibility that England might take the hard call of continuing without him at his home ground.

England squad for fourth Ashes 2023 Test:

Ben Stokes (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

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