Gary Ballance has been recalled to the England Test team for the series opener against South Africa at Lord’s on Thursday and will bat at No3 in a move that takes Joe Root down one place to his favourite position in what will be his first match as captain, while Middlesex’s Toby Roland-Jones could make his debut on familiar turf.
Ballance was dropped after the two-Test series in Bangladesh last winter and spent the 4-0 defeat in India that followed at the end of the year as an unused squad player. But after a run-soaked start to the season as the new Yorkshire captain, where he averages 101 in the County Championship, another crack at the international level has been granted.
Root had pushed for his county team-mate to be recalled and by placing the left-hander at first drop, where the new captain was stationed previously, the England selectors have given Keaton Jennings the green light to continue alongside Alastair Cook at the top of the order and opted against a recall for Haseeb Hameed.
Hameed shone during his first three Tests in India but after suffering the broken hand that gave Jennings his chance – one the Durham man took with a century on debut in Mumbai – the 20-year-old has since struggled for Championship runs at Lancashire, where he averages 15 against the red ball this summer.
A more surprising incumbent to be retained from the last time England played – a crushing innings and 75-run defeat in Chennai that led to Alastair Cook stepping down as captain and Root stepping up – is Liam Dawson, Hampshire’s spin-bowling all-rounder. Dawson was seen as a horses-for-courses selection at the time, having been added to the squad mid-tour due to Zafar Ansari’s injury, but impressed the management with the unbeaten 66 he made in his maiden Test innings. He could now slot in at No8 but, with doubts over Ben Stokes’s ability to bowl full pelt amid knee trouble, equally a debut could go to Roland-Jones.
The uncapped Middlesex seamer would therefore make up a five-man seam attack, along with Durham’s fast bowler Mark Wood, also earning his first Test call-up since 2015 when he left the tour of the United Arab Emirates for the first of three ankle operations.
With Stuart Broad and James Anderson set to resume new-ball duties following respective heel and groin injuries in recent weeks, the final make-up of the attack to face South Africa for the first of four Tests will therefore depend on whether Root wants extra spin or seam at his disposal.
James Whitaker, the national selector, said: “Gary Ballance has been in fantastic touch with the bat. We feel that he will add maturity and experience to our middle-order.
“Toby Roland-Jones is a player we have been monitoring for quite some time and deserves his chance after a strong couple of seasons with Middlesex in red ball cricket. He came close last year when he was named in the Test squad against Pakistan in July.
“Toby has been in good form this campaign and his ability to seam the ball along with the fact that he can score useful runs down the order gives us a number of options.”
England squad
Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Gary Ballance, Joe Root (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Liam Dawson, Mark Wood, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Toby Roland-Jones
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