Bowler Ollie Robinson has failed to recover from a back spasm and was left out of the 12-man squad announced by England on Sunday; the first Test against the West Indies gets under way on Tuesday
Monday 7 March 2022 08:23, UK
Ollie Robinson has been ruled out of England's first Test against the West Indies with a back spasm, with uncapped seamer Saqib Mahmood stepping into the squad.
Robinson pulled up midway through an over during the warm-up match against a CWI President's XI and was unable to take part in training on Sunday.
England were already unlikely to gamble on the 28-year-old's fitness but that settled the issue, allowing Mahmood to take his spot in a 12-man squad.
Interim head coach Paul Collingwood and captain Joe Root must now decide whether to hand the Lancashire quick a debut on Tuesday in an all-seam attack or stick with the variety of Jack Leach's left-arm spin.
Craig Overton seems certain to play, while Mark Wood has recovered from illness, but with record wicket-takers James Anderson and Stuart Broad controversially dropped for the tour, concerns over the depth of the pace attack is the last thing the tourists wanted.
"Ollie is a talented bowler. Naturally he'll be a big miss," said Chris Woakes, who is the senior bowler on the trip. "He's shown in his short Test career so far that he's certainly got the skills and the ability to do good things in the format. At the same time, it gives people opportunities.
"We're trying to win games cricket here, but it does give that chance to someone to potentially make their Test debut who's been waiting in the wings for quite a while to show what they can do at this level."
Sky Sports News' James Cole
"This is a really big blow. Although he's not massively experienced, he's made a great start to his Test career and is a useful part of that attack.
"If you take out Stuart Broad and James Anderson, you just want to be able to go to someone with that ability. Craig Overton is less experienced and is likely to open the bowling with Chris Woakes.
"But as Andrew Strauss said, he wanted this red-ball reset to feel different, he wanted the dynamic to feel different, and we're going to get that as England are forced to turn to someone else."
