Chris Woakes and Jacob Bethell return in 14-member England squad for first Test against India

‌England announced a 14-member squad for the first match of the five-Test series against India scheduled to kick off at Headingley in Leeds on June 20. Ben Stokes will lead the side with Chris Woakes and Jacob Bethell back in the mix after missing the one-off Test against Zimbabwe.

Both sides start their new World Test Championship cycle with the marathon series that will go on till the first week of August. The batting wears a settled look with the top-five from the Zimbabwe Test, along with wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, retaining their places.

All-rounders Chris Woakes and Jacob Bethell, after his impressive debut series against New Zealand last year, are also back in the side after missing the solitary Test last month. Woakes and fellow pacer Brydon Carse were not named in the squad for the Zimbabwe series as the pair were nursing niggles. Sam Cook, another quick who made his Test debut last month, retains his place alongside Josh Tongue with Shoaib Bashir being the specialist spinner.

However, Matthew Potts, who was in the squad for the one-off Test but did not feature in the eleven, misses out as Jamie Overton comes into the side and replaces the injured Gus Atkinson. Overton’s inclusion comes as a surprise as the pacer last featured for England in his only Test against New Zealand in June 2022 and was also recently ruled out of the West Indies ODI series with a broken finger last week.

The much-awaited return of pacer Jofra Archer from a thumb injury will have to wait as the pacer was not named in the squad for the first Test. However, the selectors are confident that Archer is in line to be named for the second Test provided he is able to prove his fitness in the Sussex vs Durham game, his first first-class match in four years, in two weeks time.