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Sam Cook, one of the brightest pacers in English cricket, is in line to earn a England call-up in the Test format after the national selectors asked his County team Essex to give him rest for the weekend’s match, for managing his workload. Essex are currently playing the County Championship Division 1 match against Worcestershire at the County Cricket Ground in Chelmsford, and the 27-year-old isn’t part of their playing XI.
Notably, England are scheduled to play the first Test of their summer of cricket, which will be a four-day contest, scheduled to begin at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on May 22 against Zimbabwe. It will be the first Test match between these two nations since 2003, and after that, the English cricket team will begin a five-match Test series against India on June 20, with the first Test beginning at the Headingley in Leeds.
England are struggling with key pacers suffering from injury ahead of their summer of cricket
The inclusion of Sam Cook in the English Test team this summer is highly likely after injuries to Mark Wood and Olly Stone, while the players like Brydon Carse and Chris Woakes haven’t played in County cricket due to injury issues of their own. Over the past few seasons, fans and experts have clamoured for Sam Cook to be included in the Test setup of England, and it is now very close to becoming a reality.
Moreover, during his first-class career, Sam Cook has taken 318 wickets in 88 matches at an average of 19.77 with 14 five-wicket hauls and four 10-wicket hauls. It was last winter when the right-arm fast bowler bowled quite impressively for England Lions against Australia A down under, taking 13 wickets in three four-day matches.
Rob Key, the managing director of the England men’s cricket, spoke about how they had earmarked Sam Cook as a replacement for Chris Woakes, if the latter were to get injured towards the end of last summer.
