Why pace-obsessed England have called on 80mph bowler Sam Cook in legacy-defining year for Bazball

The selection of Sam Cook in a 13-man squad for the Trent Bridge Test against Zimbabwe starting on May 22 is belated recognition that a bowler of his kind still has a role to play for England’s Bazballers.

While Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad were opening the attack, and Chris Woakes was backing them up, there was no room for an 80mph seamer whose chief weapons are accuracy and lateral movement. But Anderson and Broad have retired, and Woakes is injured, leaving Cook, 27, with a chance to show he can carve out a Test career — including in Australia this winter.

Amid talk that England’s Ashes assault will revolve around the pace of Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse, Gus Atkinson and even Josh Tongue, head coach Brendon McCullum’s initial view was that Cook was too slow to force his way in.

But the management have grown more open to making an exception for a bowler so skilful that his 318 first-class wickets — 302 of them for Essex — have come at under 20 apiece.

And if it is a track record with the Kookaburra — the ball used in Australia — that England are looking for, Cook ticks that box, too. Last summer, he took 10 for 73 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge during one of the rounds when the county game was experimenting with the ball. Then, for England Lions over the winter, he returned figures of 8–3–15–4 and 26–10–47–4 in successive games against a Cricket Australia XI.

The recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy between Australia and India seemed to confirm the theory that the new double-lacquered Kookaburra is staying harder for longer, keeping seamers — even those below 90mph — in the game.

‘We made no bones about the fact that we were looking to add some pace into the attack,’ said men’s selector Luke Wright. ‘But that didn’t mean we didn’t want a complementary attack.

‘He performed well out in Australia, and the thing I like about Cook is he’s not just a swing bowler — he swings and seams the ball, and is actually a bigger lad than some people realise. He’s known for his accuracy, but speak to any top-order batter in county cricket and he’s the one everyone fears the most.

‘Every time there’s a different challenge and you think things are going to be stacked against him, he manages to perform and take wickets. Yes, he’s had to be patient, but there have been some fine bowlers ahead of him as well.’

Almost as intriguing will be the return of Tongue, who looked a serious prospect while taking 10 wickets in two Lord’s Tests against Ireland and Australia in 2023, only for injury to cost him the whole of 2024. Now, he is back among the wickets for Nottinghamshire, and against Zimbabwe will be the fastest bowler on either side.

Meanwhile, Wright insisted captain Ben Stokes will be fit to bowl, though by the time the Test begins he will not have played any first-class cricket since injuring his hamstring against New Zealand at Hamilton in December.

Quite how many overs will be required at Trent Bridge from off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, whose three games on loan at Glamorgan brought only two wickets at 152 each, remains to be seen.

Predictably, England have stuck with opener Zak Crawley, whose latest outing in a difficult season for Kent produced six runs before he was lbw to Middlesex seamer Dane Paterson. Essex’s Jordan Cox returns after missing out on a Test debut in New Zealand because of a broken thumb, but looks like the spare batsman in the squad.

England squad:

Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (capt), Jamie Smith (wkt), Gus Atkinson, Josh Tongue, Sam Cook, Shoaib Bashir, Jordan Cox, Matthew Potts.