Matthew Potts, Rehan Ahmed dropped as England name squad for Headingley Test

England have made two changes to their squad for the third Test at Headingley starting July 6th, opting to leave out pacer Matthew Potts and young leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed. Both Potts and Ahmed were part of a 17-man squad for the Lord’s Test, and took to the field as substitutes, but ECB have opted to not include the pair for the third Test. 

There is also no place in the squad for Ben Foakes, who was controversially axed in lead-up to The Ashes despite being an integral part of the first year of the Stokes-McCullum era. Jonny Bairstow will hence continue to take the gloves.

The other fifteen members remain the same, although it remains to be seen if Ollie Pope will be fit enough to play. Pope injured his right shoulder in the second Test at Lord’s and did not take to the field on Day 4. He was visibly uncomfortable throwing the ball after jarring his right shoulder on the first day.

Should Pope be unfit, there is a chance that Dan Lawrence might come into the starting XI.

It also remains to be seen if England will hand maiden Ashes 2023 appearances to Mark Wood and Chris Woakes, both of whom did not feature in each of the first two Tests. 

England squad for Headingley Test

Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson, Josh Tongue, James Anderson, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Daniel Lawrence