The left-hand seamer Josh Hull will make his England debut in their third test on the Sri Lanka tour of England 2024 which begins on September 06.
He will be replacing Matthew Potts in England’s squad which won in the second test on 190 runs difference at Lord’s to secure a series win 2-0.
Hull was considered as a replacement for injured Mark Wood who was ruled out due to thigh injury. He has picked 11 wickets in nine County Championship appearances for Leicestershire, but his physical attributes piqued the interest of England’s management and he took match figures 5 for 74 on England Lions debut last month.
Josh Hull was named in England’s squad to face Australia later this month. With his involvement in the third test, he will likely miss the first T20I match against Australia.
Ollie Pope who came in as a standby captain for the injured Ben Stokes spoke about his height saying, “When you’re 6ft 7in and you can get it down pushing up to the 85-90mph mark, and with a bit of swing with the left-arm angle, there’s a lot to like about it,” Pope said.
Ready to round off the Test summer in style ✨
Let’s do this, @Joshhull04_ 👊 pic.twitter.com/sfcgbnhfwo
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) September 4, 2024
“It’s a really exciting week for him. With the height, you can draw in some more edges with that extra bounce,” he explained.
“It makes it a lot harder to drive the ball, especially if there is a little bit of bounce at The Oval – which there can be, especially early in the game.
“And then the angle… We’ve played four right-arm seamers for the first two games, so it’s just something different for the batters to think about in the opposition, with the ball coming into the right-hander, and obviously away from the left-hander, with that swing.”
“It’s a point of difference, and he’s got some good pace as well when he’s clicking in the nets.”
Hull will be the first left-arm seamer to play a test for England since Sam Curran in 2021, and only second since Ryan Sidebottom’s last test in 2010.
England Playing 11 for the third test against Sri Lanka: Dan Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Olly Stone, Josh Hull, Shoaib Bashir
