Olly Stone will fly home amid the first test on England’s tour of Pakistan 2024 on Wednesday ahead of his wedding this weekend and is unlikely to return in time to be considered for the second test.
Stone has been impressive in two tests against Sri Lanka at the end of the English summer, which were his first caps for three years in the format.
Brydon Carse was preferred as England’s pace option for the first test in Multan, which started on Monday.
Olly Stone is set to fly home earlier than initially planned ahead of his wedding on Saturday.
With his return date is not confirmed, and may depend on the status of England’s other fast bowlers after the first test. But with a very tight turnaround between his wedding and Tuesday’s second test, he is unlikely to feature in the upcoming match.
Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse and Chris Woakes are the other seamers picked to play in the first test, with Matthew Potts the other fast bowler in the squad.
England management is understood to be happy for Stone to leave Pakistan and was not included in their last batch of Central contracts and his wedding was arranged long before his recall.
He spoke to Rob Key and Brendon McCullum, the director and head coach respectively before the tour.
“We booked the wedding based on me only playing for Notts at the time,” said Stone.
“Jess said she was happy to move the wedding and I was adamant on keeping it where it was if possible. For what she has given up and sacrificed for me, I thought the least I could do was to try and make it work.”
Previously, seamer Tony Pigott postponed his own wedding at short notice to play what proved to be his only Test on England’s tour of New Zealand.
Joe Root said that Stone would leave with his teammates’ best wishes. “It’s a special time in anyone’s life,” he said.
“I’m really excited for him. I’m sure he is all over the place with everything that’s going on, but it’ll be very special for him – and his wife – starting a different chapter in his life. We’ll all be raising cold water to him at some point, celebrating,” concluded Joe Root.
