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Hameed and Duckett in line for England calls
- Updated: September 15, 2016
Haseeb Hameed and Ben Duckett look to be the likely beneficiaries of the decision by Alex Hales and Eoin Morgan to miss the tour of Bangladesh, as England’s selectors prepare to name their Test and ODI squads.
Duckett, who has enjoyed an outstanding season with Northants, looks set to come into the limited-overs squad, while Hameed has emerged as the likely replacement for Hales as Alastair Cook’s opening partner in the Test squad.
Other uncapped players with a chance of a call-up include the left-arm spinners Liam Dawson and Jack Leach, as well as Durham’s opening batsman Keaton Jennings and the Surrey wicketkeeper, Ben Foakes.
England look set to name an unusually large 17-man squad for the two-Test series, plus a 15-man squad for the three-match ODI series in Bangladesh. And, while the tour moves straight into a Test series in India without warm-up games, the ECB have specified that this squad will cover the Bangladesh segment only.
The most contentious decisions ahead of the announcement of the Test squad (at 10am on Friday) focus on the identity of Cook’s new opening partner, the identity of the reserve wicketkeeper and the identity of the side’s third (and perhaps fourth) spin bowler.
While Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid are sure to be named as the two main spinners in the squad, the battle for the remaining places is intriguing. Gareth Batty (whose age may count against him), Ollie Rayner (who has claimed 50 Championship wickets this season), Zafar Ansari (who has had an injury-ravaged year) and Samit Patel (who was in England’s Test squad in the UAE and South Africa and plays spin bowling as well as anyone in the country) will all have an eye on their phone, but it does seem that Leach and Dawson have emerged as leading candidates.
Though both left-arm spinners, they are strikingly different. Dawson has claimed only 15 Championship wickets at an average of 46.80 this season, but is seen as a good controlling bowler and …
