File picture of England bowler Chris Woakes celebrating a wicket during a Test match against New Zealand. The 36-year-old has been called up for the India series
| Photo Credit: AP
Fast bowler Chris Woakes was on Thursday (June 5, 2025) named in a 14-man England squad to take on India in the first of the five Tests to be played from June 20 at Leeds.
The 36-year-old Woakes recently returned from a long-term ankle injury. He has 181 wickets and 1,970 runs from 57 Tests so far, and had played a major role in a big England win over India at the Lord’s during the 2018 series.
He scored an unbeaten 137 and took four wickets in the match to help England win by an innings and 159 runs.
Woakes, along with fast bowler Josh Tongue, have been asked by the ECB to get some miles under their legs before the first Test against India starting June 20. Hence, the duo will turn up for England Lions against India A in the second unofficial Test starting on Friday at Northampton.
Overton returns
Jamie Overton returned to the Test fold for the first time since his maiden appearance against New Zealand in June 2022, even though he sustained a fracture to his right little finger on May 29 during the first ODI against West Indies at Birmingham.
The 31-year-old Overton, who also played in the recently-concluded Indian Premier League for Chennai Super Kings, “continues to be assessed and reviewed daily by the England medical team”, the ECB said on their website.
The England squad led by Ben Stokes features a lone spinner in Shoaib Bashir, who took nine wickets in their win against Zimbabwe in the only Test played earlier this summer.
Young batter Jacob Bethell, who played for eventual IPL winners Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and seamer Sam Cook, who made his debut against Zimbabwe, were also named in the squad.
The ECB said, “Durham seamer Brydon Carse and the Warwickshire pair Jacob Bethell and Chris Woakes are included in the squad, having last featured during the Test tour of New Zealand in December.”
“Surrey’s Gus Atkinson was unavailable for selection due to a right hamstring injury sustained during the recent Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge,” it added.
Schedule
India will begin their tour of England with the first Test to be played from June 20-24 at Headingley, while the second Test will be at Edgbaston from July 2-6.
The third Test will be at Lord’s from July 10-14, fourth from July 23-26 at Old Trafford and the fifth and final will be played at The Oval from July 31 to August 4.
Indian squad
An under-transition India will be captained by Shubman Gill since they are without Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli who announced their Test retirements in May, while spinner Ravichandran Ashwin called time of his career last year during tour of Australia.
Fast bowler Mohammed Shami was not selected for this tour due to lack of preparation.
England squad
Ben Stokes (c), Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes.
Published – June 05, 2025 03:58 pm IST