England have named three uncapped players in their Test squad to face the West Indies in July, signalling the start of a new era for the team.
Here, the PA news agency takes a closer look at the newcomers.
Jamie Smith
![Jamie Smith holds his bat aloft after a half-century for Surrey.](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/ca5c473c515100e9621cbe677d09d4fbY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzE5ODMyMzc1/2.71654941.jpg?w=640)
The Surrey wicketkeeper-batter is the most striking pick, getting the nod ahead of the experienced Jonny Bairstow, county colleague Ben Foakes and Durham’s Ollie Robinson. At 23, he is still a developing talent but he has long been earmarked for the very top and made his ODI debut against Ireland last year. He boasts nine first-class hundreds and an average just above 40, but really pushed himself into the frame with a 71-ball century for England Lions against Sri Lanka last February – the fastest ever for the development side. It would be too much to expect his glovework to match up to Foakes, who remains the gold standard, and it is a significant ask for him to go from county understudy to Test keeper.
Gus Atkinson
![England bowler Gus Atkinson looks on during an ODI against New Zealand.](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/3271da898ce27a6cd7bcc2e7ae334764Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzE5ODMyNTE1/2.73648584.jpg?w=640)
Another recruit from the Surrey ranks, the 6ft 2in pace bowler has been around the set-up for the past year. He played three times at the 50-over World Cup in India last year and claimed four for 20 on T20 debut against New Zealand. The 26-year-old was impressive in The Hundred, where his ability to clear 90mph first reached a wider audience, but his natural pace in red-ball cricket is a little lower than that. Has a solid return of 59 wickets from his 19 first-class appearances but does not take the new ball for the Brown Caps and takes only one career five-for into the Test ranks.
Dillon Pennington
🙌 Dillon Pennington has earned his first senior England call up alongside Ben Duckett.
The pair are included in the Test squad for West Indies' visit to Lord's and Trent Bridge.
Full Story ➡️ https://t.co/kMoDOFJlcW pic.twitter.com/DOlPmBt9aO
— Nottinghamshire CCC (@TrentBridge) June 30, 2024
Pennington is the least well known of the new arrivals but his name had been thrown into the mix by director of cricket Rob Key earlier this year, suggesting the selectors were interested. Starting out at Worcestershire, he drew glowing references from the likes of South Africa’s Morne Morkel and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, but swapped New Road for Nottinghamshire this year in a bid to take his game up a notch. He has since worked with bowling coach Kevin Shine – formerly the ECB pace development lead – on tweaking his action and has collected 23 wickets at 23.13 in the top flight this season. While he is not the finished article, his height and attacking style make him a project England are willing to invest in.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here