England’s Ashes plans have suffered a significant setback after Olly Stone was ruled out for the remainder of the season with a stress fracture to his lower back.
The 27-year-old had been identified as one of three potential 90mph fast bowlers for the trip to Australia in November alongside Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, with pace absent from the attack that lost 4-0 during the 2017-18 tour. But after winning his third Test cap during last Sunday’s eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand, Stone reported some discomfort and underwent a scan, the results of which confirmed the third stress fracture of his injury-plagued career.
It leaves Wood as the only fit member of the pace trio at present, with Archer recovering from surgery to address an impingement in his right elbow and only an outside chance to make the five-Test series against India that starts at Trent Bridge on 4 August.
Stone had been in line to feature in England’s ODI series against Sri Lanka from 29 June but his absence, plus the loss of Reece Topley (side) and Saqib Mahmood (abdominal injury), means the 24-year-old Sussex left-armer George Garton handed a first call-up to the senior national squad.
Chris Silverwood, the England head coach, said: “We have been monitoring the progress of George for quite some time. He has been a significant part of Sussex’s bowling unit in white-ball cricket for an extended period. His ability to bowl quick with his point of difference being a left-armer certainly gives us options in this series, and he deserves his chance at this level.”
Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonathan Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, George Garton, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
More positive injury news for England comes in the shape of Ben Stokes making a return for Durham in Sunday’s T20 Blast fixture at home to Birmingham Bears, his first competitive cricket since a broken finger suffered during the Indian Premier League in April required surgery.
The all-rounder is targeting an England return during the three-match T20 series against Pakistan that starts on 16 July but will hope to play at least one of Durham’s two County Championship fixtures before then, with the India Test series his primary goal.
