England have named an 18-player squad for their Lions tour of Australia to run alongside the first part of the Ashes series.
Six internationally capped players have been included in the squad, including leg-spinning all-rounder Rehan Ahmed and fast-bowler Sonny Baker. The squad will play the main Ashes touring party in a red-ball game in Perth as the only warm-up game before the first Test, and will then go on to play a Cricket Australia XI as well as a Prime Minister's XI and Australia A before the tour concludes in early December.
Wicketkeeper-batter Jordan Cox has also been included in the group, having been a late-call-up to England's T20I squad which toured Ireland earlier this month. Cox was called-up to England's senior Test squad last winter in New Zealand, but a finger injury prevented him from making a likely Test debut. He was then included in England's Test squad to face Zimbabwe, but was ruled out with an abdominal muscle injury.
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England Lions squad: Rehan Ahmed, Sonny Baker, Jordan Cox, Matthew Fisher, Emilio Gay, Nathan Gilchrist, Tom Hartley, Tom Haines, Josh Hull, Eddie Jack, Ben Kellaway, Tom Lawes, Ben McKinney, Matthew Revis, James Rew, Thomas Rew, Mitchell Stanley, Asa Tribe.
Among those selected include players who performed well in the latter rounds of the County Championship. Matthew Fisher, whose only Test cap came in 2022, took 11 wickets at The Oval against eventual champions Nottinghamshire in the penultimate round of the competition. In the round before, fellow Surrey seamer Tom Lawes blew through Warwickshire's top order, taking three wickets in 10 balls with a hostile spell.
Other well known faces in the squad include Josh Hull, who made his Test debut against Sri Lanka last year, and Tom Hartley. Somerset brothers James and Thomas Rew are also in the squad. While the older Rew was included in an England Test squad this summer, the younger Thomas has yet to make his first-class debut. The 17-year-old impressed during the One Day Cup this summer, before scoring 93* while captaining England under-19s in a 50-over game against Bangladesh U19s earlier this month.
Notable absentees from the squad, which will act as a supplement to the main Ashes group in case of injuries, include several Test capped players who were in fine form in the domestic competitions over the summer. Victorious Nottinghamshire captain Haseeb Hameed, who scored 1,258 runs over the course of the County Championship, is not among the squad, nor is Jack Leach. Leach last played a Test match in Pakistan last year, but was third on the wicket-taking charts in the 2025 County Championship.
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Sam Cook has also been left out of the squad, despite having been a fixture in England's Test squads over the summer. Cook made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in May, but hasn't made a final XI since. He caught public attention for his performances with the Kookaburra ball in the County Championship last year, and was part of an England Lions squad which toured Australia last winter.
England Lions tour of Australia schedule
13-15 November: England v England Lions – Lilac Hill, Perth
21-24 November: Cricket Australia XI v England Lions – Lilac Hill, Perth
29-30 November: Prime Minister's XI v England XI – Manuka Oval, Canberra
5-8 December: Australia A v England Lions – Allan Border Field, Brisbane
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