Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Thursday 4th June
Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood

Wednesday 17th June
The Oval, Kennington

Thursday 25th June
Trent Bridge, Nottingham

All are day/day Tests.

This is the NZ squad. Santner is injured and Bracewell is not available for Tests. Foxcroft is their new spinner.

Tom Latham (capt), Tom Blundell (wk), Kristian Clarke (Ireland only), Devon Conway, Zak Foulkes, Dean Foxcroft, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Will O'Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Michael Rae (Ireland only), Rachin Ravindra, Ben Sears (Ireland only), Nathan Smith, Blair Tickner, Kane Williamson, Will Young

NZ playing four day Test in Ireland on 27/5. Which we may as well include on this thread.

Some speculation from BBC about who will be up for discussion for places in the squad for the first Test.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/art ... k21jkqp81o

NZ squad looks pretty strong

I assumed Ravindra was injured, given that he hasn't featured at all in the IPL

England have announced a 15 man squad for the first test

Ben Stokes, Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Sonny Baker, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Emilio Gay, James Rew, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue


Good to see Rehan in even though he hasn't played for ages due to being at the IPL....Suprised to see Baker but he is rapid so the selectors will love him....Fisher done okay but a call up over Cook? Bizarre to me.....have to applaud the selections of Gay and Rew though they are well deserved and a tad suprised to see Robinson already back but can't deny his class

Big squad, but not sure why they persist with Fisher and Baker seems to be a premature selection. Good that Robinson is back. Losing Crawley was inevitable. Great to see Rehan, but am astonished Bashir is included! He and Robbo are unexpectedly retro selections. Suspect they should have also gone for Leach. Hope they don't go in with five pace bowlers.

Leave out Bashir, Baker, Fisher, Rew.

Think leach is struggling with neck problem? I'm not surprised bash is there they invested so much in him and now he's actually playing regular cricket...think he only has 12 wickets so far this season though?

England play on different pitches to county ones, pitches that might suit Bashir more, so I imagine he's ahead of Rehan who is sitting on his @rse in India

This is a lot of players called up who are not on a central contract, which is bad news for their counties.

Meanwhile, Mark Wood...

loses his contract later this summer

he might have to do some bowling to make ends meet

Fisher has a fc bowling average of 29. Which doesn't feel like knocking the door down. Baker goes at 31.

Key meanwhile still raking over criticisms of Robinson's fitness and attitude...

Seems a reasonable (oversized) squad ... probably to guard against possible injuries over the next few weeks. Think Arthur has the likely XI , though won't be shocked if Bashir is included rather than Rehan.

Glad to see Robinson back. From his own interview comments it seems he is in a much better mental space than he was around the time of his banishment - and has clearly worked hard on his fitness. His skills were never in doubt ; so as long as he is indeed good for the workloads demanded in Tests he will be an asset - much needed with the loss of Broad Anderson and Woakes over a fairly short period. If they are all fit an attack of Robinson Atkinson Tongue and Stokes should be well capable of doing the job even if there doesn't seem to be a Swann or an Underwood around for variety.

Presume Gay will open and Rew is there as a potential Smith replacement if his poor Ashes form were to continue. Would be happier if Bethell were back playing red ball instead of messing about in the IPL but I guess it is 2026...

No one's mentioned archer....is it not ridiculous that he is centrally contracted and yet not available for the first test match of the summer?!

Rob Key and Richard Gould met up with cricket journos to talk about the squad selection.

Key notes (pun intended)

Jofra available for selection in 2nd test
Carse might be available for that test too, but certainly for the 3rd test
Robinson's early season form warranted his squad recall

accidentally indicated that Gay will open with Duckett for the first test