Josh Tongue

England add uncapped pacer to squad for Ireland Test

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With a few injury concerns to their quicks, England have bolstered their pace attack with an additional seamer ahead of the one-off Test against Ireland at Lord's.

England have injury concerns around some of their quicks as the one-off Test against Ireland looms.

Ollie Robinson and James Anderson are nursing injuries from County Championship fixtures while Jofra Archer has been ruled out for the summer with an elbow injury. While Robinson's scans came clean, the pace attack has still been boosted with an additional seamer in Josh Tongue.

This is the first national call-up for the 25-year-old seamer from Worcestershire.

"We have been monitoring Josh (Tongue) for quite some time and he deserves this call-up to the Test squad," Luke Wright, England Men’s National Selector, said.

"It will be a great experience for him to understand and get used to the environment under Ben (Stokes) and Brendon (McCullum). 

"It is important to have players ready to respond and with a big summer of Test cricket coming up, we will need that depth to our squad. We wish Josh and the rest of the squad well for the first international of the campaign."

Tongue has played 47 first-class matches, picking up 162 wickets in those at an average of 26.04. He impressed in the second unofficial Test against Sri Lanka A, when he made his England Lions debut, taking 5 for 34 and 3 for 77. Notably, Tongue dismissed Steve Smith in early May in a County Championship fixture. 

Meanwhile, Ireland have also made a change to their fast bowling resources for the Test with uncapped seamer Matthew Foster replacing Conor Olphert who is still recovering from a knee injury.

The one-off Test against Ireland begins on June 1 and is followed by the Ashes a couple of weeks later. 

England squad for Ireland Test: Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Josh Tongue.

England's home schedule for 2023: 
June 1-4: One-off Test Match, England v Ireland, Lord’s

Men’s Ashes Series
June 16-20: First Test, England v Australia, Edgbaston
June 28-July 2: Second Test, England v Australia, Lord’s
July 6-10: Third Test, England v Australia, Headingley
July 19-23: Fourth Test, England v Australia, Old Trafford
July 27-31: Fifth Test, England v Australia, The Oval

 

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