Sam Cook selected for England Test squad as Chris Woakes misses out

Sam Cook has been named in the squad for England’s one-off Test against Zimbabwe later in May – reward not only for his excellence in the County Championship but also a commendable, unwavering desire to play the longest format.

Aged 27 and having taken a truckload of wickets for Essex at just 19.77 runs apiece, Cook could have been forgiven for wondering if the call would ever come. During the most recent winter, with six-figure offers from three different franchise tournaments, he could also have been forgiven for putting his bank balance first.

Instead, Cook committed to playing for Andrew Flintoff’s Lions team in Australia and now a maiden Test call-up is the upshot. Chris Woakes misses out, his season yet to begin due to an ankle niggle, and so Cook is poised to take the new ball when England’s summer gets under way on 22 May with a four-day Test at Trent Bridge.

“If you keep knocking the door down, we are watching,” said Luke Wright, part of the selection panel that also includes Rob Key and Brendon McCullum. “It was a tough decision [for him] to play for the Lions, with some franchise cricket lined up. But he called me and told me: ‘England are my No 1.’”

No Woakes means Gus Atkinson is the senior bowler, only a year on from his breakout summer and with 11 caps to his name. Matt Potts, who has 10, is next. Extra pace comes from Josh Tongue, whose heartening return for Nottinghamshire after a 17-month fitness battle has coincided with injuries to Mark Wood, Brydon Carse and Olly Stone. Woakes and Carse are slated to return to county action on 16 May, at least.

Another on the comeback trail is the captain, Ben Stokes, who has not played since hamstring surgery at the start of the year. As well as Zimbabwe, he may also turn out for the Lions in one of their two four-day matches against India A in early June.

“Stokes is going to play a full role [against Zimbabwe],” said Wright, while confirming the Test captain will go into the game without playing any four-day cricket for Durham. “He will be at full pace. We are just going to have to manage him a little to make sure he’s not doing too much.”

England’s squad is largely a case of keeping faith with incumbents. Zak Crawley holds his spot despite a horror show in New Zealand last December, while Ollie Pope has the chance to reassert himself at No 3 after keeping wicket during that 2-1 series win and watching Jacob Bethell sparkle at first drop.

Bethell is at the Indian Premier League – his Royal Challengers Bangalore side are likely to make the playoffs that overlap with the Zimbabwe Test – and so the spare batter is Jordan Cox, whose broken thumb before the first Test in New Zealand presented a chance to Bethell.

Quick Guide England Test squad Show England squad v Zimbabwe, 22-25 May (four-day), Trent Bridge: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Gus Atkinson, Sam Cook*, Josh Tongue, Matthew Potts, Shoaib Bashir, Jordan Cox*

(* = uncapped) Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback.

Asked if Crawley and Pope need runs to keep Bethell waiting when he returns, Wright replied: “Runs are their currency. In international cricket, someone is always under pressure. When they are playing well, we are a better team.”

Shoaib Bashir is another to get the backing of the panel. Somerset’s stripling off-spinner has been on loan at Glamorgan this season, the returns from which have been threadbare. But England are not giving up just yet, convinced his attributes – height and over-spin – will make the wait for his accuracy to kick in worth it.

The selectors have at least offered a bit of hope to the domestic game through the selection of Cook. Pace, while desirable at international level, is not a complete non-negotiable given he operates in the low 80s on the speed gun.

The right-armer is rather a medium-fast “nipper” in the mould of South Africa’s Vernon Philander or Mohammad Abbas of Pakistan, presenting an upright seam with relentless accuracy. The laws of physics mean a cricket ball cannot actually gather pace off a pitch but Cook, like those two magicians, hurries opponents by getting it to kiss the surface.

These skills could easily have seen Cook pigeonholed as a Dukes ball specialist in England but during the Kookaburra rounds last summer he claimed a 10-wicket haul against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. For Key, who still presides over selection, it was the final tick in the box. The phrase “proper bowler” gets used here.

Zimbabwe at home is one thing but the question is whether these skills translate to the visit of India later this summer, or the Ashes tour that follows. As regards the latter, a Kookaburra with a seam that has stayed prominent for longer in recent seasons, and seen batting averages in Australia come down, is cause for optimism.

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