Ollie Pope, who is standing in for the injured Ben Stokes as captain, said that Hull has “a massive ceiling” – figuratively, as well as literally. “When you’re 6ft 7in and you can get it down pushing up to the 85-90mph mark, and with a bit of swing with the left-arm angle, there’s a lot to like about it,” Pope said. “It’s a really exciting week for him.”
Pope said that Hull would add a “point of difference” to England’s attack. “With the height, you can draw in some more edges with that extra bounce,” he explained. “It makes it a lot harder to drive the ball, especially if there is a little bit of bounce at The Oval – which there can be, especially early in the game.
“And then the angle… We’ve played four right-arm seamers for the first two games, so it’s just something different for the batters to think about in the opposition, with the ball coming into the right-hander, and obviously away from the left-hander, with that swing. It’s a point of difference, and he’s got some good pace as well when he’s clicking in the nets.”
His selection comes after Potts claimed five wickets at 29.60 in the first two Tests of the series. Though he overcame a nervous first innings of the Old Trafford Test to produce a key spell of 3 for 47 in the second, his returns have paled compared to those of Gus Atkinson, whose second-innings five-wicket haul at Lord’s was his third of a debut summer in which he has so far taken 33 wickets at 18.06.
Hull will be the first left-arm seamer to play a Test for England since Sam Curran in 2021, and only the second since Ryan Sidebottom’s last Test in early 2010.
His inclusion continues a trend of England’s selectors looking beyond the basic statistics in their Test selections. Shoaib Bashir, for instance – whose offspin will arguably be aided by Hull’s followthrough creating rough for the right-handers – was picked for last year’s tour of India, also at the age of 20, despite a prior first-class haul of 10 wickets at 67 for Somerset.
“The numbers sometimes speak for himself, but there’s obviously a bigger picture with some of the guys,” Pope said. “Shoaib Bashir, with the way he’s done, and Josh Hull coming in, and the ceiling that he has, it just shows there’s a little bit more to the numbers. I think it’s a credit to the way the guys have gone about it, and the boldness from Brendon and Ben to get these guys in the squad at such a young age as well.”
Dimuth Karunaratne, Sri Lanka’s opener, agreed that experience need not be any barrier to success at international level, and cited Bashir’s success in India as proof that England’s management know how to bring out the best in their young players.
“The captain and the supporting staff and coaches, they trust in each player,” Karunaratne said. “They took [Bashir] to India and he played a Test match against India aged 19. So that’s a really good sign. As a former captain, it’s a better thing for the juniors. If you are good enough to play England cricket, you don’t need to play plenty of first-class cricket. Whatever you’ve done in the county season, you can get a chance to play for England.”
Karunaratne added that he had been impressed by Hull during his Lions debut at Worcester, but hoped that the prior sighting of his attributes would be an advantage for his team.
“He bowled really well in the practice game,” Karunaratne said. “In the first innings, he struggled a bit in slippery conditions. But he gets some bounce and he got some swing movement, and in the second innings he bowled really, really well with the new ball. He has a good future for England cricket.
“So let’s see. We have played against him before, so we have some plans, and that’s a plus for us to get to play against him.”
England XI vs Sri Lanka: 1 Dan Lawrence, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Olly Stone, 10 Josh Hull, 11 Shoaib Bashir