London: England have named Olly Stone as injured pacer Mark Wood’s replacement in the playing 11 for the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Lord’s, starting on Thursday. The hosts have made only one change in their side after winning the opening Test by five wickets in Manchester.
Wood sustained a thigh injury in the first Test that ruled him out of the final match of the series. Meanwhile, Stone will play his first Test since 2021. The pacer has played three Test for England in his injury-hit career. However, after missing most of last season with a hamstring injury, Stone has played 28 matches across formats for Nottinghamshire and London Spirit this season, the second-most appearances for him in a single season.
“It’s been pretty frightening… the way he’s come in and bowled this summer is very exciting,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Stone as saying. “Hopefully, I can go out there and try to touch his speeds. He’s obviously up there with the fastest in the world so I’m not sure if I’ll match it – but I’ll give it a good shot.”
Stone, who had undergone back surgery in 2021, said he is committed to playing Test cricket as long as his body allows him to do so.
“It’s the best thing I ever went in for. Thankfully – touch wood – so far, I’ve had no recurrences with that… I’ll keep coming back for Test cricket until my body tells me otherwise.”
“I just love the feeling of coming off after a long four or five days, on the back of a hard-fought win. It’s more than just skill at times: it’s your character, and the way you are out there as a team for those four or five days. It’s something that white-ball cricket can’t give you. I just love the slog of that hard graft, going out there and providing your team with something different to help you try to win the game,” he added.
Stone has scalped 11 wickets at an average of 52.63 for Nottinghamshire in the Championship this season, but his selection has been influenced by England’s focus on attributes rather than purely statistics. A similar rationale led to Josh Hull’s inclusion as cover for Mark Wood. National selector Luke Wright indicated that if Chris Woakes had been injured instead of Wood, Sam Cook would have likely been brought into the squad instead.
“Sam has been very aware of how we’re looking to balance our pace attack, and he’s close,” Wright said. “I feel for Sam. He’s an incredible bowler, and you’re never that far away. If it had maybe been Woakesy, or a different (injured bowler), then it might bring him into it more.
“But once we lost Woody, we wanted to try to keep that pace into it and have that variety in attack, and obviously that’s where having a big 6ft 7in left-armer that we could bring in, that’s why he got the nod ahead of him. But look, for Sam, he’s certainly on the radar. He’s missed out this time, but it doesn’t mean he does down the line,” he added.
England XI for second Test vs Sri Lanka: Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Olly Stone, Shoaib Bashir.
–IANS
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