England has named its team for the third Test against India, which gets underway at Lord’s from July 10.
Jofra Archer is back after four years, for Josh Tongue in the only change.
Archer, who last featured in a Test match in February 2021, has been building towards a return, bowling regularly during intervals at Edgbaston this week. England head coach Brendon McCullum has hinted that Archer could make his much-anticipated comeback at Lord’s.
“We’ll let this one settle, and when we get to [Lord’s] we’ll have a good think about it,” McCullum had told the BBC’s Test Match Special.
When asked about Archer’s availability, McCullum confirmed, “He’s fit and ready to go. Obviously the other boys have had two Test matches on the spin now, so you’d anticipate you would make a change at some stage with the line-up, and Jofra is one we’ll look at.”
Archer took 42 wickets at 31.04 in the 13 Tests he played between 2019 and 2021, including 20 at 20.27 in the 2019 Ashes.
The five-match series is level at 1-1.
England XI
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Shoaib Bashir
