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ENG vs NZ Test: Big change in England team, Crawley-Pope out; Three new players get a chance for New Zealand Test

Samira Vishwas | May 14, 2026 10:24 AM CST

ENG vs NZ Test: The England cricket team has announced its squad for the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s starting from June 4. This time the selectors took a big decision and dropped batsmen Jack Crawley and Ollie Pope from the team. The recent performance of both the players was not as per expectations, after which England took a step towards a new beginning.

In England’s 15-member team, 3 new faces got a place in the Test team for the first time. Durham batsman Emilio Gay, Hampshire fast bowler Sonny Baker and Somerset wicketkeeper-batsman James Reve have received Test call-ups for the first time. Apart from this, Rehan Ahmed, Matthew Fisher and Ollie Robinson also returned to the team.

The performance of Jack Crawley and Ollie Pope was very poor in the Ashes series against Australia. Crawley scored only 273 runs in the entire series while Pope could only score 125 runs in three Tests. After this, the selectors expressed confidence in the players who have performed brilliantly in domestic cricket.

26-year-old Emilio Gay has been in tremendous form in county cricket this season. He has scored 552 runs for Durham and his average has been 92. He has also scored three centuries with his bat. 22 year old James Rave continues to perform brilliantly. He has scored 12 centuries in first class cricket so far and has become the batsman to score the most centuries at the age of 22 in the history of the county.

England is looking at fast bowler Sonny Baker as a future star pacer. This season he has taken 14 wickets and his pace has been much talked about.

Rehan Ahmed, who is playing IPL for Delhi Capitals, has also returned to the Test team. Interestingly, he has played all his 10 Tests so far abroad and is yet to make his Test debut in England. Jacob Bethel, who is playing for RCB, will join the team after the end of IPL.

Managing Director of England Cricket Rob Key said that the team has a great mix of experience and young players. He said that tough competition for places in the team is a good thing for England cricket. Meanwhile, the England and Wales Cricket Board has also appointed former Australian batsman Marcus North as the new national selector of the England men’s team.

England team for the first test: Ben Stokes (captain), Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Sonny Baker, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethel, Harry Brook, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Emilio Gay, James Reve, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue.