Josh Hull, a 6ft 7in left-arm seamer, will make his England debut in their third Test against Sri Lanka at The Oval, which starts on Friday. He will replace Matthew Potts in England’s only change from the side that won by 190 runs at Lord’s to secure an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.
Hull, who only turned 20 last month, was a left-field replacement when Mark Wood was ruled out of the series with a thigh injury. He has taken 11 wickets at 84.54 in his nine County Championship appearances for Leicestershire, but his physical attributes piqued the interest of England’s management and he took match figures of 5 for 74 on England Lions debut last month.
He has also been named in England’s white-ball squads to face Australia later this month – though his involvement at The Oval will likely rule him out of contention for the first T20I at the Utilita Bowl next Wednesday, with a 24-hour turnaround from the scheduled end of the third Test.
Ollie Pope, who is standing in for the injured Ben Stokes as captain, said that Hull has “a massive ceiling” – figuratively, as well as literally. “When you’re 6ft 7in and you can get it down pushing up to the 85-90mph mark, and with a bit of swing with the left-arm angle, there’s a lot to like about it,” Pope said. “It’s a really exciting week for him.”
Pope said that Hull would add a “point of difference” to England’s attack. “With the height, you can draw in some more edges with that extra bounce,” he explained. “It makes it a lot harder to drive the ball, especially if there is a little bit of bounce at The Oval – which there can be, especially early in the game.
“And then the angle… We’ve played four right-arm seamers for the first two games, so it’s just something different for the batters to think about in the opposition, with the ball coming into the right-hander, and obviously away from the left-hander, with that swing. It’s a point of difference, and he’s got some good pace as well when he’s clicking in the nets.”
Hull will be the first left-arm seamer to play a Test for England since Sam Curran in 2021, and only the second since Ryan Sidebottom’s last Test in early 2010.
England XI vs Sri Lanka: 1 Dan Lawrence, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Olly Stone, 10 Josh Hull, 11 Shoaib Bashir
