Bashir has not played for England since the third Test against India in July. He suffered a broken finger at Lord’s, yet was still able to take the wicket that sealed a thrilling victory.<\/p>\n
His only cricket on the Ashes tour has come in the warm-up game between England and England Lions prior to the first Test, then for the Lions against a Cricket Australia XI in Brisbane. In those games, Bashir returned combined figures of 2-266.<\/p>\n
England explained Jacks’ selection by a need to bolster their batting. Primarily a batter, Jacks offered depth at number eight and has taken four wickets. He did not bowl in the two-day Test at Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Realistically, England’s choice is between Bashir and Jacks, depending on how much of a role the tourists believe spin will play.<\/p>\n
If Bashir gets the nod, it would leave England with a long tail, with Brydon Carse at number eight.<\/p>\n
Durham seamer Potts is in line for his Ashes debut as Atkinson’s replacement. Potts played the most recent of his 10 Tests in New Zealand at the end of 2024.<\/p>\n
An England regular when Stokes and McCullum took charge in the summer of 2022, the 27-year-old has had a staccato career over the past three years. His previous seven caps have come against six different opponents.<\/p>\n
“He’s bowling really well,” said England opener Zak Crawley. “I faced a bit of Pottsy and every time he impresses me.<\/p>\n
“He’s got the heart of a lion, a lot of skill and if he gets the nod this week he thoroughly deserves it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bashir has not played for England since the third Test against India in July. He suffered a broken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[1406,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-668779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115825087833508906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}