England bowler Brydon Carse is set to end a three-month injury lay-off by lining up in Durham’s next match.
The seamer, who enjoyed a fine start to his Test career during winter tours to Pakistan and New Zealand, has not played since withdrawing injured from the Champions Trophy in February.
Carse aggravated a pre-existing toe problem at the tournament, struggling with cuts and blisters, and he subsequently pulled out of an Indian Premier League contract with Sunrisers Hyderabad.
He has spent the first month of the county season working his way back to fitness, including sessions with England assistant coach Paul Collingwood in the north east, and should get the green light to take on Nottinghamshire in the Rothesay County Championship Division One game starting on May 16.
While the standalone Test against Zimbabwe the following week is too early for him, a county comeback would bode well for a role in the summer’s main event – a five-match series against India.
Durham’s head coach Ryan Campbell said on the eve of the campaign that he had “zero” expectation of having England captain Ben Stokes or Carse available beyond international engagements and that any appearances would be “a bonus”.
While Stokes will not be playing any cricket before leading his country out at Trent Bridge later this month, Carse’s return would be a major boost given Durham’s recent injury crisis and Matthew Potts’ departure to the Test squad.
Another Durham boy, Ben McKinney, is among those who could be called up for the Zimbabwe as England wait for news on Jordan Cox’s fitness.
The Essex batter suffered a side injury while making his way to a century against Somerset at the weekend and was scheduled for a scan on Tuesday. If the results force him out of contention, McKinney is already in the selectors’ thoughts having been namechecked by director of cricket Rob Key and selector Luke Wright recently.
Other options include Somerset pair Tom Banton and James Rew. Banton threw his name into contention with a massive knock of 371 in the first game of the season and despite a sharp dip in form from that point on, is known to be highly-rated in the set-up. Rew, meanwhile, just become the youngest Englishman since Denis Compton in the 1930s to reach 10 first-class hundreds before turning 22.
