WICKETKEEPER JAMIE SMITH TO MAKE ENGLAND TEST DEBUT AGAINST WEST INDIES NEXT MONTH AFTER GETTING THE NOD AHEAD OF SURREY TEAM-MATE BEN FOAKES AND JONNY BAIRSTOW
- England's three-Test series with the West Indies will begin at Lord's on July 10
- Wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, 23, will make his Test debut in the series opener
- The match will be Jimmy Anderson's last ever international outing at Lord's
England are to end their great wicketkeeping debate by handing the gloves to the uncapped Jamie Smith for the first Test against West Indies.
Throughout the Bazball era, it has been a battle between Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes behind the stumps, but the selectors have plumped for Foakes' Surrey colleague Smith.
Mail Sport revealed in April that the selectors were mulling over axing both 30-somethings from the Test squad and that Smith, who averages 50 in Division One of the County Championship and has struck a competition-high 24 sixes in the Vitality Blast, was the next cab off the rank ahead of white-ball international Phil Salt and Ollie Robinson, of Durham - two others who play their shots.
Smith, 23, is expected to be joined in the 14-man squad named for the first two matches of the Test summer on Sunday by another newcomer in Nottinghamshire seamer Dillon Pennington, who has taken 29 top-flight wickets since moving from Worcestershire last winter.
In what is Jimmy Anderson's international farewell at Lord's, the make-up of the rest of the attack has been dictated by unavailability to a certain extent.
With Brydon Carse serving a ban for historical betting, and Josh Tongue and Jamie Overton injured, it has brought Pennington plus Surrey's Gus Atkinson, capped in white-ball but yet to make a Test appearance, plus Sam Cook, of Essex, into the frame.
The latter has been nursing a hamstring issue, however, and will not come into the frame until the third Test at Trent Bridge.
The decision to move on from Bairstow, who became the 17th Englishman to win 100 Test caps in his most recent appearance against India in March, has the potential - given he turns 35 later this year - to end his Test career.
However, the Yorkshireman has made a habit of proving people wrong, not least in 2022 when he responded to losing the wicketkeeping spot to Foakes by scoring six of his 12 Test hundreds.
Foakes, 31, is widely recognised as the best gloveman in world cricket, but he averages only 29 and the lack of gears to his batting became an issue when left with the tail on the subcontinent.
The timing of Smith's introduction to Ben Stokes' team is also significant. The home series versus West Indies and Sri Lanka will allow a period of bedding in ahead of tough tours to Pakistan and New Zealand later in the year.
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