Matthew Potts has been announced as Ben Stokes' replacement in the XI for England's first Test against Sri Lanka, with Harry Brook stepping into the vice-captaincy role for the series to assist stand-in captain Ollie Pope.
Potts, who earned the last of his six Test caps in the one-off Test against Ireland last summer, has been given the nod ahead of fellow quick Olly Stone and uncapped batter Jordan Cox after Stokes was ruled out of the rest of the summer with a hamstring injury sustained during the Men's Hundred.
Potts, 25, is a team-mate of Stokes for both Durham and Northern Superchargers, and will slot in at No. 9 for the fixture at Emirates Old Trafford, which begins on Wednesday. That means promotions up the order for Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson, who will bat from No. 6-8 respectively.
While not quite an allrounder, Potts is a handy lower-order batter, as showcased by an unbeaten 149 against Warwickshire earlier this season, which was his maiden first-class century. Nevertheless, the selection adds to the peculiar nature of the XI, which also features Dan Lawrence as opener following Zak Crawley's finger injury sustained during the last Test against West Indies.
Both Potts and Lawrence have had to bide their time. Potts' debut summer in 2022 brought 20 wickets at 28.00 as he featured in the first five Tests of the Bazball era. But beyond a sole appearance against Ireland, he has been a spare body around the squad, including at the start of this summer against West Indies when he was superseded by Atkinson.
For Lawrence, this will be a first Test cap in the new era, though he has still yet to play under Stokes. He has been a squad regular for the last 17 Test matches - a run which began at the start of 2023 against New Zealand - including the entirety of the India tour at the start of the year. Lawrence debuted against Sri Lanka in 2021, with the last of his 11 appearances coming at the end of the Caribbean tour in March 2022, which was Joe Root's last as Test captain.
Even within that small sample size, Lawrence has occupied every position between No.3 and 7 and will tick off the opening berth this week. While his early learnings at Essex came as an opener, particularly for their second team, only seven of the 27-year-old's 203 first-class innings to date have been at the top of the order.
The most recent of those came as a pinch-hitter for new county Surrey against Somerset, finishing 54 not out from 34 balls. While the match situation was something of an anomaly, as Surrey made an ambitious dart at a target of 209 inside 19 overs, it is that kind of aggressive intent Lawrence is looking to channel in his new, temporary role.
"I think my natural style is to try and be aggressive, always try to take the game on and score runs," said Lawrence. "Not necessarily as quickly as possible, but try to take every opportunity. And that won't change over the next few weeks. Throughout my whole career, I've played a certain brand of cricket and that has served me well so I'm just going to do the same thing.
"I think it's kind of the style of cricketer that Baz and Stokes are generally after, and my general way of going about it is to try and be quite aggressive. So I think I fit the mould more in that aspect.
"I did actually start my first-class career as an opener and then I've gradually kind of moved up and down as I've gone along. But I'm only really focusing on trying to really enjoy the week. It shouldn't be too much different from batting three or four."
England: 1 Dan Lawrence, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk),7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Matthew Potts, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Shoaib Bashir