England have announced Dan Lawrence as Harry Brook's replacement for the Test series against India. The announcement came moments after Harry Brook withdrew from the five-match Test series against India, as he returned to UK citing personal reasons.
An initial announcement from the ECB suggested that Harry Brook had pulled out of the entire series. However, it is now believed that he might come back to India at a later date.
"Surrey's Dan Lawrence to join the England Men's Test squad in the next 24 hours," England Cricket's statement read.
Right after Brook withdrew from Test series against India, ECB in a release said, “The Brook family respectfully requests privacy during this time. In light of this, the ECB and the family kindly request the media and the public to respect their wish for privacy and refrain from intruding on their private space".
Talking about Lawrence, he is familiar to playing in Indian conditions as he was part of the England squad that toured for a Test series in 2021. During that series, he participated in two of the four Tests. Notably, in the fourth Test at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, he scored 46 and 50, although England lost the match by an innings and 25 runs, resulting in a 1-3 series defeat. Since his debut against Sri Lanka in 2021, Lawrence has played in 11 Tests, scoring 551 runs at an average of 29 and a strike rate of 53.86. The right-handed batsman has hit four half-centuries, with his highest score of 91 coming against the West Indies in March 2022 at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.
At 26, Lawrence is also a capable off-break bowler, claiming three wickets with an economy rate of 2.77. Recently, he played six matches for the Melbourne Stars in the 2023-24 Big Bash League (BBL), where he achieved a half-century against the Adelaide Strikers and took a four-wicket haul against the Hobart Hurricanes.
Notably, the first Test between India and England will be played from January 25.
England squad: Ben Stokes (captain), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Shoaib Bashir,Dan Lawrence, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ben Foakes, Tom Hartley, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Mark Wood.
India's squad first two Tests vs England: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), KS Bharat (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan
England vs India's schedule for five-match Test series in 2024
1st Test: January 25-29, 2024 (Hyderabad)
2nd Test: February 2-6, 2024 (Vizag)
3rd Test: February 15-19, 2024 (Rajkot)
4th Test: February 23-27, 2024 (Ranchi)
5th Test: March 7-11, 2024 (Dharamsala)
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