The England Cricket Board has made a change in England’s ODI squad for the upcoming ODI series against Australia where Olly Stone will replace Gus Atkinson.
He was ruled out due to looking over his workload management after a busy summer. Playing only six tests, Gus Atkinson picked a haul of 34 wickets including a 12-wicket haul in his test debut.
He and Chris Wood were the seamers taking back-to-back wickets against Sri Lanka and West Indies. There were signs of Gus Atkinson being sidelined for the final stages against Sri Lanka as he spent time off the field on day three at The Oval with a tight quad, despite being fit enough to bowl 11 overs in the fourth innings of the match.
With him decided to be rested by the management, they have brought in Olly Stone as the replacement.
England is set to travel to Pakistan and New Zealand to play tests, and with Mark Wood being ruled out due to an elbow injury, he will be working on reshaping his seam attack after the retirements of legendary bowlers Stuart Broad and James Anderson.
“I think he’s okay,” said stand-in captain Ollie Pope. “He’s obviously got a couple weeks off now just to refresh and move forward. He’s able to put his feet up now, but I think the way he bowled today and just chatting to him, he actually feels like it feels better today than it did when he first felt it so that’s a positive for us. Fingers crossed he’s all good.”
“Obviously from a batting point of view it’s different to the fast bowlers, but I think they’ll have a couple of weeks off just to refresh and get right for that,” Pope said.
“And I think pulling an England shirt on is the greatest honor, so I don’t think there needs to be much more motivation.”
“We love touring as a team and everything’s a new, exciting challenge. So I think from that point of view, that’s fine. I know it’s a short turnaround, but I think us as a team, we love every bit in an England shirt whenever we get the opportunity to pull it on.”
“So that won’t be an issue getting up for that. There’ll be a lot of excitement come the time ago to Pakistan.”
The first ODI match will be played on September 19 at Trent Bridge following the end of the T20I series.
England ODI Squad for Australia: Jos Buttler (c), Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Jordan Cox, Ben Duckett, Josh Hull, Will Jacks, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Jamie Smith, Olly Stone, Reece Topley, John Turner.
