England have called up uncapped left-arm finger spinner Liam Patterson-White for this winter’s three-Test series in South Africa, while Shoaib Bashir has dropped down to the Lions squad.
All-rounder Patterson-White helped Nottinghamshire win the Championship title in 2025 by taking 26 wickets and scoring 540 runs in 11 appearances, and then claimed 42 wickets and scored 474 runs in 14 appearances last season.
Jacob Bethell did not feature in August and September’s 3-0 sweep of Pakistan due to a knee problem that required surgery, but he is back to add to England’s batting options for a tour that is live in full on Sky Sports across December and January in what will be Stephen Fleming’s first series as head coach.
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Jordan Cox deputised for Bethell at No 3 versus Pakistan, scoring a half-century in each of the three Tests at Headingley, Lord’s and Edgbaston.
The Essex player’s displays have opened up a selection dilemma, with possibly only three spots available between Cox, Bethell, Emilio Gay and Dan Lawrence.
Should England omit opener Gay, who has three fifties across his first six Tests since replacing Zak Crawley at the start of the summer, Cox or Bethell could potentially partner Ben Duckett at the top of the order.
Middle-order batter and part-time bowler Lawrence was recalled against Pakistan following Ben Stokes’ international retirement and acted as the chief spinner as England deployed an all-pace frontline attack with great success.
England Men’s national selector Marcus North said: “Liam Patterson-White’s selection comes on the back of a strong summer in the Rothesay County Championship, when he took the most wickets of any spinner in Division One with 42 at an average of 25.11 and earned his first ECB development contract.”
North: Carse can work way back into England team with Lions stint
Josh Tongue will be unavailable for the first Test in order to return to the UK for the birth of his first child with Brydon Carse, included in a strong England Lions squad, in position to replace him. Carse was dropped by England in the summer after an incident in Derby in August and was subsequently charged by the Cricket Regulator, with a verdict still to come.
Sam Curran is unavailable for the Test series as he is prioritising his wedding.
North confirmed “one or two players” from the Lions squad will be drafted into Fleming’s playing group and did not rule out Carse.
“Obviously in the past few months under investigation, it’s been a time where he [Carse] has stood back and it’s been a time of reflection,” North said, after the squad announcement.
“It’s obviously been a challenging time for Brydon and it’s one we probably haven’t at times felt the demands of playing international cricket and what he was dealing with was necessarily right for Brydon or us.
“There has been several conversations between us, myself, (managing director) Rob Key and other people at the ECB with Brydon over this period and the conclusion is we feel he is in a place where we can introduce him back into an England environment.
“We feel the Lions is the right place for him to come.
“Come that first Test, with Josh Tongue unavailable, that will leave us with 14 players and this is where I feel we’re using the Lions tour to our advantage.
“You can see there is a very strong bowling group that is in the Lions programme and that enables us to no doubt look at where they are at in competition and under training.
“They will be out there from the [November] 25th, the Lions players, with some of our red-ball Test players, Stephen Fleming will be out there at that time and that enables us to be as informed as possible to then bring one or two players across into that Test squad come that first Test.”
England begin the South Africa series in Johannesburg on December 17, before the Boxing Day Test is held at Centurion and the series concludes in Cape Town from January 3.
They then meet the Proteas in three one-day internationals, with one game in Paarl (January 10) and two in Bloemfontein (January 13 and 15).
Bashir and Carse are joined in the Lions’ red-ball squad by James Rew, who featured over the summer in England’s Test team.
“We have also selected a strong England Lions squad, who will fly out to South Africa on November 25 for a preparation camp before three 50-over matches and two first-class games,” North added.
“Those players will benefit from experiencing <a href="https://absafricatv.com/nelson-mandelas-party-anc-suffers-historic-losses-in-south-african-local-elections/” title=”Nelson Mandela's party ANC suffers historic losses in South African local elections”>South African conditions and ensure we have players who are fit and ready should they be required for the Test series.”
The six players in the Test squad, who are not involved in the upcoming white-ball series in Australia – Sam Cook, Gay, Lawrence, Patterson-White, Ollie Robinson and Jamie Smith – will fly out to South Africa early with the England Lions squad for a preparation camp in Pietermaritzburg on November 25.
Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Sonny Baker, Duckett and Joe Root will return to the UK immediately after the ODI series against Australia before flying to South Africa on December 2.
Harry Brook, Bethell and Cox will leave the tour of Australia after the fourth T20 in Sydney on November 29 and fly directly to South Africa.
England Men’s Test tour of South Africa schedule
December 9-11: Warm-up match v CSA XI; Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban
December 17-21: First Test; Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
December 26-20: Second Test; Centurion Park, Centurion
January 3-7: Third Test, Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town
England Lions tour of South Africa schedule
December 1: First 50-over match v South Africa A; Pietermaritzburg Oval, Pietermaritzburg
December 4: Second 50-over match v South Africa A; Boland Park, Paarl
December 6: Third 50-over match v South Africa A; Boland Park, Paarl
December 10-13: First four-day match v South Africa A; Tuks Cricket Oval, Pretoria
December 18-21: Second four-day match v South Africa A; Willowmoore Park, Benoni
Watch England’s three-Test tour of South Africa live on Sky Sports from Thursday December 17. The opening game is at Wanderers in Johannesburg (8am UK time).Get Sky Sportsor stream with NOW.
