Picture Credit: X
Sam Cook has been given the maiden call-up to the England Test team for the one-off four-day contest against Zimbabwe, which will be played later this month. The 27-year-old pacer is one of the two uncapped players in the 13-member England squad alongside Jordan Cox, who has made his return to the England bench after suffering an injury last year, while Josh Tongue is also the part of the lineup after quite some time.
Notably, during his career in the County Cricket, Sam Cook has taken a whopping 318 wickets at an average of just 19.77, while his impressive performances against Australia A down under for the England Lions, taking 13 wickets in three matches made his case stronger for the national team call-up. As far as Jordan Cox is concerned, he was slated to make his Test debut in New Zealand last November until a fractured right thumb injury ruled him out of the series.
Apart from these three players, the rest of the England squad looks quite settled with the return of Ben Stokes at the helm after recovering from an injury. Joe Root, Harry Brook, and Ben Duckett are in exceptional form with the bat, while the likes of Gus Atkinson and Matthew Potts have been amongst the wickets in Test cricket in recent matches for England as well.
The one-off four-day Test match between England and Zimbabwe is set to begin on May 21, at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, which will be the first such contest between both the nations in 22 years.
Below is England’s 13-member squad for the one-off Test match against Zimbabwe:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Jordan Cox (wk), Sam Cook, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Matthew Potts, Josh Tongue
