England v New Zealand Test Series 2026

[Arthur Crabtree]

Gay played for Italy last year.

Can't be a thing anymore.

[Durhamfootman]

not a thing, unless he suddenly wanted to play for Italy again

tbh, it shouldn't be a thing, imo, because ex England/Aus/SA etc players would only help associate development.... as long as they don't keep shifting between the two, taking the ssip

[Arthur Crabtree]

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

The Bashir/Rehan/neither final selection is one of the more interesting and unpredictable features. My guess is if the conditions are better for pace we'll get Rehan, but if the pitch looks like taking spin they'll go for Bashir.

Which wouldn't really be a good scenario for Rehan- if he's going to get picked on unhelpful circumstances. But at least he would be in the side. And they won't pick both.

[meninblue]

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

Few new names in the squad, at least new to me.

Sonny Baker
Matthew Fisher
James Rew

Looking forward to see if England test batting lineup and specialist spin bowlers will give a better performance.