As attention returns to international cricket after the completion of the Hundred, on a chill, windswept day at Headingley there was further evidence of the increasingly red-hot reputation of Sonny Baker, whose continued emergence as a bowler with Ashes ambitions coincided with Jamie Overton’s decision to surrender his own by announcing an indefinite break from the first-class game.
The 22-year-old Baker will make his senior international debut on Tuesday in the first one-day international against South Africa, opening the bowling alongside the returning Jofra Archer, knowing that positive performances in this series could sway selectors who are already seriously considering him as a seam bowling option for the Ashes after a breakout summer for Hampshire and Manchester Originals.
“He’s been awesome in the Hundred,” Harry Brook said. “You’ve seen him bowl at some of the best batters in the world and he’s had them on toast. It’s been really good to see. He bowls at high pace and he can swing it both ways with exceptional death skills as well so to have him in the team and for him to be opening up tomorrow is awesome. I think there’s quite a lot of people excited to see where he goes.”
Baker made his County Championship debut in April after joining Hampshire from Somerset at the end of last season. He took nine wickets at 16.22 for the Originals in the Hundred this year, including a hat-trick against Brook’s Northern Superchargers, having dismissed Brook during a three-game stint for Southern Brave in 2022.
“The spells he bowled to Kane Williamson and David Warner [of London Spirit] and then Steve Smith and Jonny Bairstow [of Welsh Fire], all four are world-class batters in the shorter format and he was all over them,” Brook said. “He bowled with high pace and high skill. He was awesome to watch this year and everyone was talking about him.”
An understrength England squad trained at Headingley on Monday, with the five players who were involved in the Hundred final at Lord’s on Sunday still making their way north. “In an ideal world we’d have liked to meet up yesterday and train yesterday, train today and go into the game as a group,” Brook said. “But nobody’s short of cricket, that’s for sure.”
The squad was joined by Mark Wood, who continued his recovery from knee ligament injury by bowling in the nets. The sight of the fast bowler in apparently full flow may buoy England more than reports from Australia that scans have identified a back problem for Pat Cummins that could affect their captain’s ability to play all five Ashes Tests.
Brook said he had been “a little bit shocked” by Overton’s decision to step away from red-ball cricket after 99 first-class games, including two Tests. Overton was in England’s squad throughout the five-match series against India this summer and played in the last game, but has concluded that it is “no longer possible to commit fully to all formats at every level, both physically and mentally”.
The 31-year-old will still spend part of his winter in Australia, though he will be there for a third season with Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League rather than to represent England in the Ashes.
“Red-ball, first‑class cricket has provided the foundation for my professional career and has been the gateway to every opportunity I’ve had in the game so far,” Overton said in a statement.
“Going forward, my focus will be on white-ball cricket, and I will continue to give everything to play at the highest level for as long as I can.”
England Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Sonny Baker.
South Africa Aiden Markram, Ryan Ruckelton (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Wiaan Mulder, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Marharaj, Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi.
South Africa are making a second visit to England this summer, following their World Test Championship win against Australia at Lord’s in June, with the series starting just over a week after their most recent international assignment, also against Australia, concluded 10,000 miles away in Queensland. “The guys have gotten over the whole time zones and jet lag I think,” their captain, Temba Bavuma, said. “They enjoy a UK tour. We expect it to be tough as always, but we’ll try to make it as fun as it can be.”
His team have won five of their past six white-ball games against England and meted out merciless thrashings in the sides’ two most recent ODIs, by 229 runs in Mumbai at the 2023 World Cup and by seven wickets at the Champions Trophy in March.
