LONDON: Left-arm orthodox spinner Liam Dawson on Tuesday returned to England Test set up after a gap of eight years, replacing injured Shoaib Bashir in the squad for the fourth against India, starting July 23 in Manchester.
Bashir had sustained a fracture in his left hand while fielding off his own bowling during India’s first innings in the third Test which England won by 22 runs.
Despite the injury, Bashir had bowled in India’s second innings and helped his side complete a thrilling win by dismissing Mohammed Siraj.
Dawson, 35, played the last of his three Test against South Africa back in 2017. He has seven wickets. He has also played six ODIs and 14 T20Is in his start-stop international career.
He has been a consistent performer for Hampshire over several years and was named PCA Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Dawson has so far taken 371 wickets in his 212 first-class games and has also scored more than 10,000 runs with 18 hundreds.
“Liam Dawson deserves his call-up. He has been in outstanding form in the County Championship and consistently puts in strong performances for Hampshire,” said England selector Luke Wright.
Meanwhile, seam bowlers Sam Cook and Jamie Overton have returned to their respective counties.