Even in the era of prolonged faith bestowed upon England’s men’s Test players by Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, someone had to be first to go.
Matthew Potts, the young Durham bowler who bolted into the squad amid a spate of injuries at the start of the summer, quietly made way for the fit-again Ollie Robinson as the season wore on, but it was Alex Lees upon whom the new leadership duo ultimately wielded the axe for the first time proper, the 29-year-old first left off England’s central contract list last autumn, then out of the squad for the subsequent tour of Pakistan.
