Gus Atkinson gets a rest from the Australia series as the ECB wants to manage his workload ahead of the Pakistan series in October.
In his place, England have called up fellow pacer Olly Stone to play in the ODI series later this month.
Gus Atkinson had a phenomenal home summer that began with a 12-wicket match haul on debut at Lords. He went on to take 34 wickets in the 6 tests that he played sharing the new ball with Chris Woakes.
However, as the summer wore on, it felt as if his pace was declining and he also suffered an injury scare. It was later revealed that it was a tight quad and that he was fit to bowl.
He bowled 11 overs in the second innings and took one wicket for his troubles.
England fly to Pakistan for a 3-test series in October. With Mark Wood already out, they do not want to take risks with Atkinson.
“I think he’s okay,” England’s stand-in Test captain, Ollie Pope, said of Atkinson.
“He’s obviously got a couple weeks off now just to refresh and move forward.
“Just chatting to him, hefelt better today than he first felt it so that’s a positive for us.
“Fingers crossed he’s all good.”
Pope was confident there would be no issues motivating the side for Pakistan. It could also see the return of Stokes as skipper from his hamstring injury.
“Obviously from a batting point of view it’s different. But I think they’ll have a couple weeks off just to refresh and get right for that.
“Pulling an England shirt on is the greatest honour, so I don’t think there needs to be much more motivation.”
“We love touring as a team and everything’s a new, exciting challenge. So I think from that point of view, that’s fine. There’ll be a lot of excitement come the time to go to Pakistan.”