Brydon Carse will make his home Test debut at Headingley against India, and the 29-year-old has been asked to do a job he has barely done since county cricket in 2019 – share the new ball with Chris Woakes. For more than a decade that task belonged to James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Now England go in with an attack containing just 23 caps between four quicks, trusting Carse’s winter form to translate to a Kookaburra swinging through Leeds’ early-summer air.
Across tours of Pakistan and New Zealand Carse was England’s stand-out bowler, collecting 27 wickets at 19.85. Only once did he open up, in Multan, mainly because there was nobody quicker available. A fortnight ago the coaches pushed him up top in the one-day series against West Indies; three early breakthroughs in three games convinced Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum to persist.
“I know it’s a different format and different colour ball, but Brydon looked very threatening with the Kookaburra in the white-ball series leading up to this,” Stokes said on Thursday. “The skills Tonguey has, I think it suits him better in the role he’s got in this team, being first change. But Brydon looks all the part of a new-ball bowler.”
Josh Tongue, recalled after an injury-ruined summer, slots in at first change, while Mark Wood is rested for Lord’s. England expect Gus Atkinson to prove his fitness before the third Test and still hope Jofra Archer might be ready at some stage later in the summer. Privately they would like to walk out at the Gabba in November with Carse and Atkinson taking the shine off the ball and Wood charging in after lunch, yet nobody wants to admit the Ashes are already in mind. “All eyes are on India,” Stokes insisted.
Carse has spent the build-up bowling with a succession of brand-new Dukes, trying to rediscover the rhythm that brought that repeatable nip in January. “I’d like to think I can be quite adaptable,” he said. “Over the winter, we saw slightly different conditions and different roles used… Being adaptable and being flexible around my role in the team is something that I know is probably going to happen.”
He is also pain-free after the toe injury that forced him to pull out of the IPL and miss the Zimbabwe Test. “It was true, what I said. I’ve had a lot of friends giving me a lot of stick asking if I still have my toe,” Carse laughed. “It was a little tricky period over the winter.”
Trickier still was last summer’s three-month ban for placing bets on matches in which he was not involved. The issue is parked, though not forgotten, inside the England dressing-room. Coaches talk instead about his “physical robustness” and how his high release point complements Woakes’ fuller length.
India, meanwhile, arrive with their own seam-bowling experiment. Jasprit Bumrah is rested, leaving Mohammed Siraj to lead a group also missing the injured Mohammed Shami. On paper the visitors bat deeper and boast Ravindra Jadeja’s all-round class, yet for once England’s pace battery is the unknown quantity capable of tilting a series.
Headingley usually offers early help before flattening out. If Carse can land his natural length, Woakes can hold an end, and Tongue can bang away at a hard ball, England believe they have enough variety to keep Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma honest. A lot rests on a man still working out where he fits.
For Carse, the assignment is simple: take the new ball, hit the seam, and show that the numbers from Karachi and Wellington were no statistical fluke. How quickly he settles could shape not just this India series, but the direction of England’s pace plans for the next 18 months.
