England have called up Surrey’s Jamie Overton to their Test squad for the first time ahead of next week’s third match against New Zealand at Headingley.
Overton is selected instead of Matt Parkinson, the Lancashire spinner, in the only change to the 14-man squad that secured a memorable series victory at Trent Bridge last week.
Parkinson’s omission is a show of faith in Jack Leach, who took three wickets on his return from concussion in Nottingham.
Overton, twin brother of Somerset’s Craig, who is already in the squad, has had a superb season for Surrey, who remain unbeaten across all formats.
In the County Championship, he has 21 wickets at 21.6, as well as 212 runs, with a high score of 93. One of England’s issues has been a long tail, which he would help alleviate, as well as adding a genuinely pacy option to the attack.
In Surrey’s Championship win over Somerset, where the Overtons came through the academy, Jamie ruled both his brother Craig and Josh Davey out with concussion. As a result, Craig will have to follow a graduated return to play this week.
New Zealand should have captain Kane Williamson back from Covid, but have issues with Michael Bracewell and Devon Conway testing positive for the virus and Kyle Jamieson ruled out with a back injury .
