The moment cricket fans have been salivating over might be about to happen: Salt and Pepper in the same England team.
With white-ball skipper Jos Buttler out of the ODI series against West Indies due to a setback in his recovery from a calf injury – he hopes to return for the T20s that follow – England have drafted in uncapped Essex wicketkeeper-batter Michael Pepper.
That presents the chance of a spicy opening partnership with Phil Salt in the Caribbean over the next week – a headline writer’s dream.
Pepper has played only seven 50-over matches in his career, most recently in 2023, but struck two hundreds batting at No 3 for Essex in this season’s Vitality Blast – a 53-ball 120 not out against Sussex and 101 from 44 deliveries against Middlesex.
The right-hander was the third-highest scorer in the competition and smashed a tournament-leading 32 sixes.
Proud moment for South Asian Cricket Academy
The other player involved in the squad for the first time is Yorkshire leg-spinner jafer chohanthe first graduate of the South Asian Cricket Academy to be picked by England.
The 22-year-old is yet to play a 50-over game but, like Pepper, has impressed in the T20 format, bagging 22 wickets in 23 games, including 17 in 10 outings in 2024 with a best of 5-14 vs Durham.
Chohan has enjoyed some ascent since failing to land a contract at boyhood county Middlesex in 2022, earning a deal with Yorkshire the following year after dismissing Joe Root and Ben Duckett in an England net session, with an impressed Root championing the bowler to the Headingley county.
“My skillset is a very unique one and a bit different to what England has had before,” said the Londoner, who has a long run-up based on that of former Pakistan spinner Shahid Afridi. “I feel very confident in my game and I like to express myself as a person with how I bowl.”
There are four uncapped players all told in the England party, with Pepper and Chohan joined by Hampshire fast bowler John Turner and Warwickshire all-rounder Dan Mousley.
Both have been involved in squads before, including at home to Australia this summer, without making the XI.
South Africa-born Turner, who qualifies for England through his Zambian mother’s English parents, also toured the Caribbean last December.
His former coach, ex-Durham and South Africa cricketer Dale Benkenstein, has likened Turner’s action to Australia great Glenn McGrath but England really like the 90mph-plus pace he offers.
Turner averages below 20 with the ball in all three formats he has played (first class, List A, T20/The Hundred), bagging 15 wickets in 10 games for Hampshire in the Blast this term and then five for Trent Rockets in The Hundred. He also took four-wicket hauls in both One Day Cup games he played for Hampshire, shredding top orders.
Mousley’s late show in The Hundred
Mousley is primarily a batter, although he averaged just 7.57 for Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred this season. The left-hander’s troubles included three successive ducks, with Rockets quick Turner inflicting the third of those when he nicked off Mousley first ball.
However, Mousley did star with his off-spin during The Hundred, most famously in the reverse fixture against Rockets.
Rockets required 10 runs from as many balls to win at Trent Bridge but came up short as Mousley took three wickets and conceded only three runs in the final set of the game, dismissing Lewis Gregory, Rashid Khan and Jordan Thompson as he fired in yorker after yorker.
He also bagged 15 wickets for Birmingham Bears in the Blast, a competition in which he also fired with the bat, amassing 282 runs, including three fifties.
West Indies vs England schedule (all times UK and Ireland)
- First ODI: Antigua – Thursday October 31 (6pm)
- Second ODI: Antigua – Saturday November 2 (1.30pm)
- Third ODI: Barbados – Wednesday November 6 (6pm)
- First T20: Barbados – Saturday November 9 (8pm)
- Second T20: Barbados – Sunday November 10 (8pm)
- Third T20: St Lucia – Thursday November 14 (8pm)
- Fourth T20: St Lucia – Saturday November 16 (8pm)
- Fifth T20: St Lucia – Sunday November 17 (8pm)
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