Josh tongue will make his Test match against Ireland tomorrow (June 1), after being selected to replace Chris Woakes for England’s opening Test of the summer – here’s everything you need to know about the team. England’s newest fast bowler.
He announced the line-up for the Challenge of God match yesterday, after Tongue was added to the team last week. The 25-year-old plays his first-rate cricket for Worcestershire and has won 11 sockets inside district championship so far this season. He averaged 41.45 in four games, for an economy rate of 4.43, as a right-arm quick pitcher.
England XI v Ireland: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Matt Potts, Josh Tongue, Jack Leach.
Tongue has been given a place on Chris wakes upwho was on the original squad before Tongue was called up. Ollie Robinson And Jimmy Anderson both of them were treating their minor injuries in front of Ashes, while wood markings returned home to spend time with her family after the birth of her second child. Woakes hasn’t played a Test match in over a year after suffering a long-term injury. The 34-year-old averaged 22.63 in England Test matches.
Our newest test cricketer! 🧢
Congratulations, Josh Tongue#ENGVIRE pic.twitter.com/jOTO6xItzV
– English Cricket (@englandcricket) May 30, 2023
Among Tongue’s title winners this season was Steve Smith in his first game for Sussex earlier this month. Tongue pinned Australia’s top Test hitter lbw for 30, after knocking out opener Tom Clark earlier in the innings. He ended up with three hits from a Worcestershire bowling turn in the game, his third victim being Cheteshwar Pujara.
Speaking about his pick on Tuesday (May 30), Tongue said: “It’s a great feeling. [I’m] speechless, really. Even when I was called up to the team for the first time… now being on the real team, it’s really just a dream come true.
“Baz (Brendon McCullum) came to see me right before practice today ended. Actually, I just finished a gym session, and he came up to me and told me the good news.”
“I was bowling with some players on Monday, I feel like I’ve been bowling really well and I’m obviously going to go in with no expectations of being competitive and only bowling with players. class on grid is good for me. I had to be pretty good at bowling to get picked.”
McCullum, England’s head coach, spoke about bringing Tongue into the squad on Monday, before it was announced that he would make his debut, saying: “He’s a big guy, that’s what That’s for sure, he looks pretty fast and has some real skills. He is clearly a diamond in the rough. He’s had a number of injuries throughout his career and it’s great that someone like him is able to get a long period of injury-free time this summer to push his case forward.
“We thought he had something really interesting and so we included him in the squad. I’m not sure if he’ll play in this Test or over the summer, but then again, he’s another guy who looks like he’s got a lot of talent.”
Tongue was part of the ECB’s pace of development as a teenager and was selected to the England Lions Team in 2017 after a distinguished debut season. That year, he won five strokes on his Championship debut against Glamorgan and finished the season with 47 championships, playing a key role in Worcestershire’s promotion to First Division. He continued into 2018 with 40 goals in Division One at 25.27. Since then, however, Tongue has spent at least part of every first-class summer with injuries.
Just last year, he was said to have almost completely retired from cricket due to a nerve injury in his shoulder that kept him out of action for 15 months. The injury required two surgeries as well as botox injections for Tongue to be functional again. He returned at the end of the season, where he played the last three Championship games of the season for Worcestershire and scored five times.
During the Lions’ recent tour of Sri Lanka, Tongue picked up 5 points in the first leg of the Second Unofficial Test against Sri Lanka A and won three points in the second leg.
