Phil Salt is expected to be given the opportunity to audition for a long-term place in England’s batting order when the team play their first fixture after Ben Stokes’s retirement from one-day international cricket against South Africa at Old Trafford on Friday.
The Lancashire batter’s six previous 50-over games for England, against Pakistan at home last summer and in the Netherlands last month, have come in series when for various reasons an understrength side was selected, so being picked on his home ground would represent something of a breakthrough.
