Zak Crawley and Dillon Pennington have both been ruled out of England's Test series against Sri Lanka later this month through injury.
Crawley sustained a fracture in his little finger while fielding during the third Test match against the West Indies, and Ben Stokes opened the batting instead. Jordan Cox, the uncapped 23-year-old right-handed batter from Essex, has been called up as the squad's spare batter.
Cox has 3,936 runs in all first-class cricket, at an average of 39.46, and has hit seven hundreds. However, his 763 runs this summer have come at 69.36, including three hundreds in 12 innings. Cox toured Pakistan with the limited-overs squad in 2022, but did not get a game.
Also ruled out is uncapped fast bowler Dillon Pennington of Nottinghamshire, who sustained a hamstring injury while playing in The Hundred. The selectors have replaced Pennington with his county teammate Olly Stone, whose 10 wickets from three Test matches – between 2019 and 2021 – have come at 19.40.
England squad for Test series against Sri Lanka:
Ben Stokes (c), Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Jordan Cox, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
England versus Sri Lanka Test series schedule:
First Test: August 21-25 2024, Old Trafford, Manchester
Second Test: August 29-September 2, 2024, Lord’s, London
Third Test: September 6-10, 2024, The Oval, London
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