Ollie Pope is a significant doubt for the third Ashes Test, with scans on his injured right shoulder booked for Monday and England braced for a reshuffle as they head to Headingley, where the next match starts on Thursday.
Pope – who has kept his place in England’s squad pending the results of his scan – injured his right shoulder in the field on the first day of the second Test at Lord’s and reinjured it in similar circumstances on the third. Though he was able to bat in both innings his condition continues to cause concern, and putting him through the rigours of another Test starting in just a few days would risk making the situation more serious.
England are also aware that, having withdrawn Pope from the field twice at Lord’s on the basis of him suffering what the playing conditions term “an external blow” only for him to then bat as scheduled, they would be testing the spirit of the laws and the patience of their opponents if it were to happen again.
England travel to Leeds on Monday having released Matthew Potts and Rehan Ahmed from their squad and have opted against calling up another batter. Dan Lawrence, who bats at four for Essex and has averaged 44.6 in the County Championship this season, is their only back-up option, though they could add another should Pope be formally ruled out.
With such a short turnaround between Tests both teams are likely to shuffle their bowling packs. After not playing a specialist spinner at Lord’s England could recall Moeen Ali, who is said to be bowling well in the nets and, as Ahmed’s release indicates, has fully recovered from the injured finger that troubled him in the opening Test.
Jimmy Anderson has looked below his best across the first two matches, taking just three wickets, – Ollie Robinson and Stuart Broad, the other seamers to have played both games, have taken 10 and 11 respectively – and like the other bowlers his fitness will be assessed. Mark Wood opted not to play at Lord’s to give himself an extra week to hone his fitness for Headingley, while Chris Woakes offers further seam-bowling cover.
England squad B Stokes (Durham, capt), M Ali (Warwickshire), J Anderson (Lancashire), J Bairstow (Yorkshire), S Broad (Nottinghamshire), H Brook (Yorkshire), Z Crawley (Kent), B Duckett (Nottinghamshire), D Lawrence (Essex), O Pope (Surrey), O Robinson (Sussex), J Root (Yorkshire), J Tongue (Worcestershire), C Woakes (Warwickshire), M Wood (Durham).
