Toby Roland-Jones made an impact on his Test debut vs South Africa at The Oval. (Source: Reuters)
Following a near-perfect 239 run win at The Oval, England have made just one change from the third Test squad for the fourth Test against South Africa that begins on Friday at Old Trafford. Steve Finn has come in as a replacement for fellow seamer and injured Chris Wood. England lead the four match series 2-1 with all three Tests producing big wins so far.
Finn had come in as a standby for Wood for the third Test where Toby Roland-Jones was handed an England debut and made an early impact by picking up eight wickets – including a fifer in the first innings. He was strongly supported by James Anderson and Stuart Broad in the attack.
The third Test also saw debuts for Tom Westley who scored 59 in the second innings and David Malwan offering promise at the top. With inclusion of Westley and Malwan, Moeen Ali was moved down to number eight at The Oval but that could be altered in Manchester.
“I’m still of the view we don’t need more than seven batters,” said England coach Trevor Bayliss to Sky Sports. “We’ve got three guys like Ben Stokes, (wicketkeeper) Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali who give us a lot of options, so on this occasion, we looked at the conditions, saw it was a bit green here and played the extra batsman. There wasn’t a great deal of spin, but that could be different somewhere else,” he added.
Should England consider bringing in a bowler in Liam Dawson in the squad, they could chop opener Keaton Jennings who has failed to produce runs. Malan, who scored 11 runs in the Test, could also be cut.
Squad: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Tom Westley, Joe Root (captain), Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Moeen Ali, Toby Roland-Jones, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Liam Dawson, Steven Finn.
