England have called up the uncapped James Rew to their squad for the one-off Test match against Zimbabwe.
England had included uncapped Essex wicketkeeper-batter Jordan Coxin their squad for the Test match against Zimbabwe, scheduled to be played at Trent Bridge between May 22 and 25.
Two days after that, Cox sustained an abdominal muscle injury while batting on 98during a County Championship match against Somerset. He reached his hundred and retired hurt immediately, and played no further part in the game, and was subsequently ruled out.
This was not the first time that an injury denied Cox a Test debut (though he played three ODIs and T20Is in 2024). England had included him in the squad for the three-match Test series at home against Sri Lanka in 2024, but he did not get a game. During the New Zealand tour of 2024/25, Cox was set to keep wicket when Jamie Smith went on paternity leave, but a broken right thumb kept his debut on hold.
Replacement for Jordan Cox
England have replaced Cox with Somerset’s Rew, whose 116 helped Somerset chase 321 in the same match. Only 21, Rew has 2,688 runs at 43.35 along with 118 catches and five stumpings from 45 first-class matches. He has gone past fifty 18 times, and have converted 10 of them to hundreds. In fact, he is the youngest Englishman since Denis Compton to reach 10 first-class hundreds.
Rew has been in excellent form this summer, averaging 54.21 in first-class cricket, and was more or less expected to get a call-up soon. He is one of two uncapped players in the squad, the other being Cox’s Essex teammate Sam Cook.
Quiz! Every cricketer to appear in an England-Zimbabwe Test match
England Test squad for Zimbabwe Test
Ben Stokes (captain), Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, James Rew, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue
