England draft 18-year-old Thomas Rew into white-ball squad for Australia tour
Eighteen-year-old Thomas Rew has been named in England’s white-ball squad for the four-week tour of Australia next month, with Jacob Bethell declared fit to return and Brydon Carse omitted; the trip includes three one-day internationals and five Twenty20s.
Coming after the upcoming tri-series in Pakistan, the tour opens with three ODIs that start on 13 November before five T20s later in the schedule, and fast bowlers Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue, Gus Atkinson and Sonny Baker have been selected for those one-day games. Jos Buttler remains absent following hamstring surgery, a gap that has contributed to a fresh-faced T20 group in which Somerset’s Rew is one of four uncapped players.
Brydon Carse remains frozen out of selection while he awaits the outcome of his disciplinary process after a brief arrest in Derby in August, and England team director Rob Key said Carse is technically available for selection but has been given time to "get his house in order". None of those circumstances were sufficient to secure Carse a recall for the Australia trip.
Henry Crocombe and James Coles will remain with the squads after the Pakistan series, while Hampshire quick Eddie Jack has been given his first international opportunity; Jack, 21, earned an England development contract on Monday and Crocombe, 25, has been awarded a full two-year deal and is due to swap Sussex for Surrey this winter. Eddie Jack is noted as a favourite of the Lions in the selection notes.
Thomas Rew’s selection followed his first development contract 24 hours earlier; the 18-year-old Somerset wicketkeeper-batter is the younger brother of James Rew, who made his Test debut in June but missed out on a deal, and Thomas already has two centuries in four first-class appearances. Were he to make a T20I appearance in Australia — a tour on which he will turn 19 — he would become the third youngest man to represent England after Rehan Ahmed (18 years & 126 days) and Brian Close (18y & 149d); Rehan Ahmed misses out on this tour and will likely tour the Caribbean with the England Lions.
England Men ODI squad (16 players): Harry Brook (Yorkshire – captain), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Gus Atkinson (Surrey), Sonny Baker (Hampshire), Tom Banton (Somerset), Jacob Bethell (Warwickshire), Jordan Cox (Essex), Henry Crocombe (Surrey), Sam Curran (Surrey), Liam Dawson (Hampshire), Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire), Will Jacks (Surrey), Jamie Overton (Surrey), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Josh Tongue (Nottinghamshire).
England Men IT20 squad (16 players): Harry Brook (Yorkshire – Captain), Tom Banton (Somerset), Jacob Bethell (Warwickshire), James Coles (Sussex), Jordan Cox (Essex), Henry Crocombe (Surrey), Sam Curran (Surrey), Liam Dawson (Hampshire), Aneurin Donald (Derbyshire), Eddie Jack (Hampshire), Will Jacks (Surrey), Jamie Overton (Surrey), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Thomas Rew (Somerset), Phil Salt (Lancashire), Luke Wood (Lancashire).
Captain Harry Brook, Jordan Cox and Jacob Bethell are slated to play in both the ODI and T20 series and then move straight into the South Africa Test tour, a mid-tour turnover of frontline quicks that the selectors have framed as underscoring the ODIs’ importance a year out from the World Cup; other than Buttler the 50-over side is described as being at full strength. The Australia trip comprises three ODIs starting on 13 November followed by five T20s during the four-week tour.