Jamie Overton added to the England side for the 5th Test with England considering changes for The Oval Test.
Jamie Overton has returned to England’s team for the fifth Test match against India. The only alteration to the team from Old Trafford, when India managed to rescue a spirited draw to keep the series alive, is the addition of Overton, who played for Surrey in the County Championship last week.
During the fourth Test, England’s bowlers put up a lot of work in vain, putting down 257.1 overs in two innings, and skipper Ben Stokes later acknowledged that new legs might be needed.
“If you look at how long we’ve been out in the field and the overs that we bowled as a bowling unit, everyone is going to be pretty sore and pretty tired going into the last game of the series,” he said. “There’ll be an assessment of everyone, and hopefully we can use these next two or three days’ rest period wisely and then have to make a decision.
“These recovery days are going to be pretty important and we might have to make a few decisions to get some fresh legs in. But that won’t be decided until we get closer to the last game.”
With the exception of Liam Dawson replacing the injured Shoiab Bashir at Old Trafford and Jofra Archer replacing Josh Tongue after two games, England has mainly maintained the same attack throughout the four Test matches played thus far. Brydon Carse (155) and Stokes (140) are not far behind Chris Woakes, who has bowled more overs (167) than anyone on either side. After a four-year hiatus, Archer has only recently resumed playing Test cricket.
Gus Atkinson, who shown his fitness following a hamstring injury while playing for Surrey’s second XI last week, was anticipated to be active at this point in the series and might replace Woakes.
A recall for Overton would see him play Test cricket for the first time since his debut in 2022, while Tongue, who still holds the second-highest number of wickets in the series for England with 11, would also be in the running.