England have named their team for the fourth Test against India which starts on July 23 at Old Trafford. Jamie Overton and Sam Cook are out. Liam Dawson, 35, replaces Shoaib Bashir.
Ben Stokes, the England captain, said Bashir would miss the rest of the series after their win against India at Lord’s. People thought Jack Leach or Rehan Ahmed would get in but the ECB surprised everyone by picking Dawson who is back in the Test team after eight years.
Dawson was born in Hampshire and first played for England in a T20 match in 2016 and then played in the other formats that year. He made his Test debut against India in 2016 when he was added to the team for the last two Tests.
Dawson scored a fifty in his first Test innings and took a couple of wickets. He then toured South Africa with England but didn’t do well and was dropped from the team. The left-arm spinner remained active in the other two formats and was part of England’s World Cup winning team in 2019 but didn’t play. His last ODI was in 2022 but he is still a key player for England in T20 matches.
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Dawson has also played franchise cricket including PSL, Lanka Premier League, The Hundred, SA 20 and BBL but has never played in the Indian Premier League.
Dawson’s recent form in County cricket is good so the selection wasn’t based on T20 matches. He has taken 21 wickets in 16 innings for Hampshire. Dawson could be a good No 8 for England as he has scored 536 runs in 14 innings with an average of 44.67 including a hundred and two fifties.
