Yahoo Sport 
England team news: Matthew Potts recalled to replace injured Ben Stokes against Sri Lanka
Matthew Potts will make his Test return in place of Ben Stokes, as England retain five bowlers at Emirates Old Trafford even in the absence of their captain.
In another significant development for the side, Harry Brook has been appointed vice-captain for the three Tests against Sri Lanka, providing support for Ollie Pope, who will lead England for the first time. After Brook was appointed captain for Northern Superchargers in this year’s Hundred, it is another indication that England are grooming a new generation of leaders.
England’s XI for the first Test on Wednesday will see Durham’s Potts, who has played just one of the previous 21 Tests, win a recall to the side as part of a four-pronged seam attack. Chris Woakes will bat at No 7 – where he hit 137 not out against India at Lord’s in 2018 – with Gus Atkinson promoted to No 8.
Potts, who hit 149 not out for Durham earlier this season after working intensively on his batting in the winter, will bat at No 9. Mark Wood will complete the pace attack, with Shoaib Bashir retained as spinner.
Pope, who has only captained in one first-class match, addressed the squad and management on the outfield at Old Trafford. Stokes, who was ruled out of all the series against Sri Lanka with a serious hamstring tear, faces a race against time to be fit for the three Tests in Pakistan in October.
Potts, who is 25, is a highly skilled seamer who generates pace of around 85mph. In 2022, Potts took 20 wickets in five home Tests, including dismissing New Zealand’s star batsman Kane Williamson three times. Since then, because of the return to fitness of Woakes and Wood and the emergence of Atkinson, Potts has only played in last year’s Test against Ireland.
In India last winter, Potts took 20 wickets at 17 apiece for England Lions, impressing the management with his accuracy and skill in conditions that did not favour seam. He is renowned for bowling very wide of the crease on occasion, generating an awkward angle for batsmen.
The recall of Potts means that there is no return for Olly Stone, who has regained full fitness. Stone, who is 30, has played just three Tests in an injury-marred career but has made a fine impression in his limited appearances, taking 10 wickets at 19.4 while regularly bowling at speeds exceeding 90mph. The uncapped Jordan Cox, who could have given England a seventh specialist batting option, was also squeezed out.
England team to play Sri Lanka at Old Trafford
Dan Lawrence
Ben Duckett
Ollie Pope (c)
Joe Root
Harry Brook
Jamie Smith (wk)
Chris Woakes
Gus Atkinson
Matt Potts
Mark Wood
Shoaib Bashir
Five-man attack has more flexibility and is picked with Australia in mind
The two greatest Test sides since the 1950s rarely deviated from a simple approach to selection: pick the best six batsmen, the wicketkeepers, then a four-man bowling attack. But while the method brought West Indies extraordinary success in the 1980s, and Australia similar dominance around 2000, that does not make it right for England now.
After 18 months in which Ben Stokes effectively played as a specialist batsman, his return to full fitness this summer meant that England once again deployed a five-man attack in the Test series against West Indies. Even with Stokes injured, England will retain this balance against Sri Lanka.
Without an all-rounder capable of batting in the top six, picking a side is an exercise in compromise: reinforcing one potential vulnerability risks opening up another. So it is with England’s team at Old Trafford. From picking Jonny Bairstow at number seven in last summer’s Ashes, England now have Chris Woakes there, below Jamie Smith – who, for all his promise against West Indies, has played only three Tests.
England began the last Ashes with Moeen Ali at number eight. Now, Gus Atkinson – with a first-class average of 20.2 – will bat there.
Yet while the new shape of England’s team brings a greater risk of collapse, these vulnerabilities should not be overstated. Smith is Surrey’s regular number four. In six previous Tests as England’s locum number seven, Woakes averages 70.3, including making a century against India and 84 not out in a fourth-innings chase against Pakistan. Woakes’s Test batting average in England is 33.3, within two runs of those of Andrew Flintoff, Ian Botham and Tony Greig at home.
Promoting Woakes opens up new possibilities with the ball. In India last winter, England repeatedly allowed the hosts to mount lower-order recoveries. For all the qualities of Ravindra Jadeja and company, England’s struggles in finishing innings off also highlighted the pitfall of a four-man attack.
The structure can render bowlers exhausted, leaving them to bowl out of necessity – when their team-mates need a rest – as much as because they are the best man to dismiss a particular opponent.
A five-man attack has more flexibility built in. This will stop England from overbowling their quicks, especially important with three Tests in consecutive weeks. Protecting the workloads of Atkinson and Wood will allow the pair to be at their quickest, and most dangerous, rather than be forced to bowl overlong spells. Woakes, 35, will also benefit from not being overexerted.
Potts, the ultimate beneficiary of Stokes’s injury, will have the chance to show that he is a more rounded bowler than the man who made five encouraging appearances in the summer of 2022. His batting has also developed markedly, as an average of 41.1 in the County Championship this year attests to.
It is a selection made not just with a focus on the present, but also on the challenges that lie ahead. If Woakes does not go to Australia in 2025-26, England will need someone of his ilk: a highly skilled new-ball bowler to complement the quicker bowlers alongside him, and ideally a player who can contribute lower-order runs to boot. Potts fulfils the description better than any other contenders.
If being without Stokes the batsman is a new challenge for England, being without Stokes the all-rounder is not, such have been his injury travails. Since the summer of 2018, England have won a remarkable 11 out of 12 Tests, with one draw, when selecting five frontline bowlers in addition to Stokes, who was effectively picked as a specialist batsman.
For all that England will crave Stokes on the field in the coming days, a five-man attack gives the best chance of mitigating his absence.
