England have picked uncapped Nottinghamshire left-armer Liam Patterson-White as their sole specialist spinner in their 15-man Test squad to take on world No1 side South Africa in their own back yard next month.
Shoaib Bashir has been dropped for the 28-year-old, who led all County Championship Division One spinners last season with 42 wickets.
Elsewhere in the squad, Jacob Bethell is back after missing the end of the summer through injury, while opener Emilio Gay retains his place despite failing to properly convince in his first six Tests against New Zealand and Pakistan, averaging just 24.
Joe Root’s side face the world champions in three Tests either side of the new year, having not lost a series in South Africa since 2000, and with Stephen Fleming taking the reins for the first time since replacing Brendon McCullum as red-ball head coach.
Here, Daily Mail Sport analyses what it all means…
A spin surprise
The choice of the uncapped Patterson-White over Bashir, a bowler England have invested in for two-and-a-half years, is telling on several levels.
Liam Patterson-White was the leading spinner in this year’s County Championship Division One, taking 42 wickets for Nottinghamshire
First, the selectors are sticking to their pledge of picking players based on strong county form – only seven bowlers in the top flight took more than his 42 wickets, none of them spinners.
As with Graeme Swann before him, a move to Nottinghamshire has proved a tough school. Trent Bridge tends to be dominated by swing and seam, but it has taught Patterson-White how to hold an end in first innings and bowl in a more attacking fashion deeper into four-day matches. His economy rate of 2.41 last season suggests he will offer control.
It is also a nod to his superior batting. With three first-class hundreds to his name and a first-class average of 24.09, compared to Bashir’s 7.57, his selection would stiffen the lower order as well as offer some variation in Root’s attack.
Spin tends to play a minimal part in Tests in South Africa and even when teams have opted to include a frontline spinner, they don’t always impact the game with the ball, making their potential contributions with the bat all the more valuable.
An example of this came in the Cape Town Test between South Africa and India three years ago when Ravindra Jadeja did not bowl a single ball in the tourists’ seven-wicket win. Mainly because the Indian seamers took full advantage of the helpful conditions at the start of the match.
At the same venue last month, however, the value of fielding a balanced attack was shown when the contest against Australia went much deeper. Veteran off-spinner Simon Harmer took full advantage of the wearing surface on day five, bagging half a dozen wickets to finish with match figures of 58.1-2-120-10. Keshav Maharaj sent down 53 overs at the same ground in South Africa’s win over Pakistan in 2024-25.
Johannesburg’s Wanderers, where England’s series starts, is a venue in which pace bowling dominates. The last time England played there, winning to seal a 3-1 victory in 2019-20, part-time spinners Root and Joe Denly combined for 10 overs across the match.
With Dan Lawrence able to offer serviceable off-spin as a top-six batter, Patterson-White is unlikely to see a Test debut until the Boxing Day Test in Centurion – which, like the Wanderers, encourages extra bounce at altitude – at the earliest. It is likeliest that he is made to wait until the final Test in Cape Town in the new year.
Shoaib Bashir has not made the progress that England expected of him when Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum were wooed by his high release point on YouTube clips three years ago
So what happens to Bashir?
Derbyshire’s Bashir has not made the progress that England expected of him when Ben Stokes and McCullum were wooed by his high release point on YouTube clips three years ago. It was an attribute they hoped would be useful on bouncier surfaces in Australia, and by association South Africa.
Yet he was overlooked for five Tests as an Ashes squad member last winter and has not even made the cut this time, despite having his central contract renewed on October 1.
That award suggested he remained England’s No1 spinner, particularly given that Jack Leach has dropped off the radar. But Patterson-White, who only holds a development contract with the ECB, has been favoured for his more rounded ability.
One thing on Bashir’s side is time. It should not be forgotten that he is still only 23, and that he is England’s youngest spinner to 50 Test wickets. Swann did not make his Test debut until the age of 29.
And he will still be in South Africa, on the England Lions tour ahead of the three-Test series, working with newly-appointed spin coach Richard Dawson, meaning he could be called up if needed.
Work there might be as much about getting Bashir ready for February’s tour to Bangladesh, where England will need multiple spinners, and national selector Marcus North insisted the hierarchy ‘still have a very positive outlook’ on him.
The return of Carse
Brydon Carse has remained on the sidelines, and the subject of an ongoing probe by the Cricket Regulator, since a late-night incident in Derby while on Durham duty in August.
However, he takes his place alongside Bashir in the Lions squad, with his former Durham director of cricket North explaining he was now ready to return to action.
Brydon Carse is back in the England Lions squad after taking a period out following his nightclub incident in Derby in August
‘In the past few months, under investigation, there has been a time where he has stood back and there has been a time of reflection. It has been a challenging time for Brydon,’ said North.
‘We have had times when we haven’t felt that the demands of playing international cricket, and what he was dealing with, was necessarily right for Brydon, or for us.’
Although he is outside of England’s 15-strong Test party for now, that could change in the next few weeks, with Fleming, in his first assignment as coach, set to draft in one or two extra bodies from the Lions.
The likelihood is that one will be South African-raised Carse, with fellow fast bowler Josh Tongue missing the first Test in Johannesburg to witness the birth of his second child.
Tongue, currently nursing a big toe injury that has seen him return from the white-ball tour of Australia prematurely, is one of two players with personal circumstances affecting their ability to be in South Africa this December.
Sam Curran informed Rob Key, England’s director of cricket, that he was unavailable for selection for the tour because he is getting married.
Shuffling of the deck chairs
The return of Bethell from a chondral defect in his right knee has given England a selection dilemma ahead of the first Test in Johannesburg on December 17.
Bethell appeared to have made the No3 position his own with a classy Ashes hundred in Sydney earlier this year, but injury opened the door to Jordan Cox against Pakistan at the end of the summer.
The return of Jacob Bethell from a chondral defect in his right knee has given England a selection dilemma ahead of the first Test in Johannesburg on December 17
With Lawrence’s all-round qualities at six also a consideration, England’s selectors will use the build-up to assess their options, with Emilio Gay, the current incumbent, also under pressure to retain the opening berth amidst the heavy competition for places.
England’s players will arrive in South Africa in dribs and drabs during the back end of November, with the final trio of Harry Brook, Bethell and Cox flying directly from Australia on November 29, immediately after the fourth Twenty20 in Sydney.
Will Jacks will captain a much weakened England team in the fifth and final match of the series Down Under, in a move that shows Test cricket is being prioritised ahead of the heavyweight clash against the Proteas and a home Ashes series now just seven months away.
