The ball had not even landed in second slip’s hands, but Tom Westley was shaking his right thumb in pain and then sprinting from the field, straight into the Chelmsford medical room with the vigour of a man whose Ashes hopes had been shattered. It was a brutish lifter from Yorkshire’s Steve Patterson, one of the least brutish bowlers on the county circuit, that accounted for the Essex No3 for 13.
However, with England’s selectors – who have already lost Toby Roland-Jones and Haseeb Hameed to injury during last week’s Championship action – naming their Ashes squad on Wednesday, Westley was relieved to learn an X-ray revealed that damage did not extend beyond the loss of his wicket and a badly bruised thumbnail. He will bat in Essex’s second innings, although that may arrive too late to influence the selectors; having averaged 24 in his five Tests this summer, his place is far from secure.
Vying with Westley for a batting spot are the Yorkshire captain, Gary Ballance, and James Vince of Hampshire, who saw the first day against Warwickshire washed out. Dawid Malan, another unsteady incumbent, has a relegation-shaped hole to dig Middlesex out of at Taunton.
The injury to Roland-Jones opens up a seam-bowling position, with Jake Ball in pole position, but there are a few more candidates than among the batting to consider. How Mark Wood emerges from Durham’s match at Worcestershire following a heel problem is one consideration, as are the charms of Somerset’s uncapped Craig Overton at the end of a season that has brought 44 wickets at 23 runs apiece.
Overton picked up the wicket of Nick Compton but Steven Finn went wicketless on day one of Middlesex’s match – on a Taunton turner where spin winkled out nine of the 10 Somerset wickets to fall. Last week, Finn pushed his claims with eight for 79 against Lancashire at Lord’s, in keeping with his ever-fluctuating stock.
Among England’s limited-overs side taking on West Indies at present is a bowler whose brawny attributes might suit Australian pitches well. But Liam Plunkett, fresh from his maiden five-wicket haul in one-day international cricket at Bristol on Sunday, is phlegmatic about the chances of adding to his 13 Test caps, the last of which came against India three years ago.
“Obviously I’d love to go in the Ashes squad but I know that’s far away for me,” said the 32-year-old, whose exploits with the red ball this summer have been just two appearances for Yorkshire given England’s early-season Champions Trophy campaign and a groin injury thereafter.
“I’ve done well in white-ball cricket and I’ve been successful in that so maybe they think of me as a white-ball bowler now. But I’m happy where I’m at and I feel good in the one-day team right now. If I got the go-ahead [for the Ashes] happy days, but I can’t see it happening.”
While Plunkett will be playing in the Bangladesh Premier League when the Ashes is taking place, and Finn in South Africa’s equivalent if also overlooked, England intend to give themselves options in Australia with a Lions party touring concurrently during the first three Tests, albeit not always in the same state should a replacement be required on the morning of a match.
After a training camp in Loughborough, England’s second string will arrive in Brisbane 10 days before the first Test at the Gabba on 23 November. Though they will play a three-day match against a Queensland XI, the trip has more of a training focus and accordingly the Lions bowlers will be expected to provide high-quality practice for the senior batsmen in the nets.
From there the Lions head to Western Australia, meaning they will be an internal flight away during the second Test in Adelaide, but on hand in Perth come the third. Coached by Andy Flower, they have five Twenty20 matches scheduled, the first two of which will be against the state’s second XI before taking on Perth Scorchers, the Big Bash League side, in the final three.
This Lions party will be selected in the days after the Test touring party is announced. Should Wood not be deemed initially selectable for the latter because of lingering doubts about his fitness, or Westley and Keaton Jennings find themselves out of the reckoning due to form, they will likely drop down to the shadow set-up.
