Mark Wood is poised to return to England’s attack for the third Test against India that starts on Thursday, with Rehan Ahmed’s visa status the one remaining question for the tourists as they look to wrest back momentum in the series.
While Wood has been named in a 12-man squad for what could be a pivotal match at 1-1, which spinner makes way was still subject to Ahmed’s situation on Tuesday night. The 19-year-old was stopped on arrival in India on Monday after the team’s mid-series break in Abu Dhabi when his visa – originally arranged so he could be on standby for last year’s World Cup – was found to be “single entry”.
Ahmed was allowed back into the country and trained with the team on Tuesday but the 48-hour travel document granted by officials still needed to be replaced by a new visa. It is the second such problem to beset England on this tour. Shoaib Bashir missed the first Test due to complications arising from his Pakistani heritage and the need to fly from the team’s pre-series camp in Abu Dhabi to London to complete paperwork.
If Ahmed is cleared to take the field, then Bashir may miss out despite an encouraging debut during the defeat in Visakhapatnam last week. Eyeing a potentially flat pitch, Ben Stokes appears keen to ally Wood, his fastest bowler, with Jimmy Anderson, leaving Ahmed, Tom Hartley and Joe Root to share the spin duties.
Wood was the sole seamer in the first Test in Hyderabad and went wicketless from 25 overs of luckless toil in the match. “If we were to go with two seamers we might be able to get a bit more versatility,” said Stokes, two days out from his 100th Test cap. “We could use Woody how we want to use him out here and not worry he’s the only seamer.”
England were possibly fortunate that their arrival here on Monday was the first international flight to land at the Hirasar airport, which is in the final stages of being upgraded from a domestic airport. Had they flown into a busy major hub such as Delhi or Mumbai, the short-term exception made for Ahmed may not have been granted.
Either way, it remains a staggering oversight by the England and Wales Cricket Board given Bashir’s complications; a potentially damaging one, too, with no replacement spinner called up once Jack Leach’s tour was ended by a knee injury. The operations department, headed by Stuart Hooper, the former Bath director of rugby, faces internal questions.
Stokes and Brendon McCullum, the Test head coach, are understood to have remained at the airport when Ahmed was held up for around 30 minutes on Monday. With England players travelling on e-visas, rather than printed visas in their passports, the 19-year-old had been unaware his was technically invalid.
A similar problem nearly prevented Ollie Robinson from flying from Abu Dhabi at the start of the tour when his visa application was initially rejected because of a mistake on the form.
On his podcast, Chatting Balls, Robinson said: “There was an error at the ECB – I think they must have just put an initial wrong or one letter must have been wrong. It didn’t pass. Wayne [Bentley, the team manager] said: ‘You’re not coming to India – you have to stay here for another night. It could be two nights, it could be three.’ Luckily, I woke up in the morning to a nice message from Wayne saying: ‘Visa’s here.’”
