Amid the hurly-burly and hot air that inevitably accompanies the weeks before the Brisbane Test England have encountered some genuine problems. Ben Stokes is still in the northern hemisphere and likely to remain there; Steven Finn became the late replacement who departed early with a knee problem; Jake Ball twisted an ankle in Adelaide; young fast bowlers like Tom Curran and George Garton have been summoned from afar. But there may be a beneficiary from all these setbacks and that is Somerset’s Craig Overton.
Overton was selected in the original tour party ahead of Finn but the assumption was that he would be there as the rookie, to learn, to improve and possibly to play a Test or two later in the series. When Stokes was sidelined the door was ajar; there was the chance he could squeeze into the team as the fourth seamer, partly because of his batting prowess. Now, after the injuries to Finn and Ball, that door is wide open. Overton is on course to play in Brisbane.
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