England Announces County XI Squad For Practice Match Against India

Youngsters James Bracey and Haseeb Hameed were amongst the 14-member squad for the County Select XI to face India next week in a three-day match at Durham.

The squad will be led by Warwickshire captain Will Rhodes, who has scored 452 runs in 14 matches in the current season. Hameed, who has played three Tests so far in the 2016/17 trip to India, made 219 runs in six innings as a 19-year-old. Now with Nottinghamshire since 2020, Hameed has scored 642 runs at an average of 42.43 in the ongoing season.

Bracey did not leave an impact in his maiden Test outings against New Zealand in June. He made scores of 0, 0 and 8 and struggled with the gloves as a stand-in wicketkeeper following a freak hamstring injury to Ben Foakes. Bracey, though, has been around the England squad for the last year as a reserve keeper-batsman.

"The squad was selected after consulting with the first-class counties on player availability and to provide some of the high potential talent from across the county game with the opportunity to test themselves against the ICC World Test Championship finalists. The county players will bridge into a team environment and undergo Covid testing before being cleared to play in the match," the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a release.

"The ECB would like to place on record its thanks to the first-class counties for their continued support to make players available for this fixtures and to Durham County Cricket Club for providing facilities for this match to be staged," the release further said.

Richard Dawson, England's elite performance pathway coach, will be the coach for the County Select XI.

The practice match will be played behind closed doors at Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street from July 20-22. The first Test of the five-match series between India and England begins on August 4 at Trent Bridge.

County Select XI squad: Will Rhodes (captain), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Aspinwell, Ethan Bamber, James Bracey, Jack Carson, Zak Chappell, Haseeb Hameed, Lyndon James, Jake Libby, Craig Miles, Liam Patterson-White, James Rew and Rob Yates.