Daily Times

LONDON: Pace bowler Saqib Mahmood will make his Test debut for England in the second match of their series in the West Indies, replacing the injured Mark Wood, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced on Tuesday. A first appearance for the Lancashire seamer is the only change from the team that drew on a flat pitch in Antigua last week, with paceman Ollie Robinson still sidelined. Mahmood, 25, has played seven one-day internationals and 12 Twenty20s since 2019 but this is his first chance to show his international credentials in red-ball cricket.

England captain Root said Mahmood was a “great option to have up our sleeve”. “He’s very mature for a guy who hasn’t played a huge amount of international cricket and he has an understanding of how he wants to operate,” the skipper said in comments carried by the BBC. “He’s been very impressive. He’s got a slightly different trajectory and will give us a point of difference. He has done that when he’s played in other formats.”

England’s record Test wicket-takers James Anderson and Stuart Broad were controversially dropped for the tour. The second Test of the three-match series starts at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on Wednesday.

England team for second Test: Joe Root (captain), Jonny Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes (wicketkeeper), Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Craig Overton, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Saqib Mahmood.