England Excludes Brydon Carse for Final Test Against Pakistan
England shut the door on Brydon Carse for the third and final Test against Pakistan at Edgbaston, drawing a sharp line under a turbulent fortnight for the Durham seamer.
The 31-year-old, briefly arrested after an incident outside a Derby nightclub on 22 August, was left out for the second Test at Lord’s and has not been recalled. Derbyshire Police continue to investigate allegations of assault, and while Carse remains available for his county, England have chosen to move on without him for now.
Baker stays, Fisher out as England eye clean sweep
Sonny Baker, the 23-year-old quick who came in as Carse’s replacement, keeps his place in a 15-man squad that is otherwise largely settled. The only other change is the omission of Surrey seamer Matthew Fisher, a quiet but telling tweak as England look to finish the job and complete a series whitewash over Pakistan.
The final Test at Edgbaston begins on Wednesday, 9 September at 11:00 BST, with England in control of the series and the mood around the camp confident. The core of the attack remains intact, but the schedule is starting to bite.
Six white-ball matches against Sri Lanka follow straight after this Test series. That looming block of limited-overs cricket hangs over selection. Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue are all part of both the Test and white-ball plans, and England know they cannot keep flogging the same fast bowlers across formats without a cost.
So the pace options may shuffle. Archer, Atkinson and Tongue are all named in the Test squad, yet they could be rotated out at various points in Birmingham to manage workloads. That opens the door for Baker to play a more prominent role, while Essex seamer Sam Cook and Derbyshire spinner Shoaib Bashir also wait in the wings.
Cook, 29, has only one Test cap to his name, earned against Zimbabwe last summer, but his relentless accuracy has kept him on the selectors’ radar. Bashir, 22, has not yet featured in this series at all, squeezed out by England’s preference for an all-pace attack against Pakistan. If the pitch in Birmingham shows any sign of turn, that calculation may change.
Baker, meanwhile, is still at the start of his Test journey. His only appearance came in June in a heavily rotated side against New Zealand at The Oval. He did enough there to convince the selectors he belongs in this environment, and his retention here underlines that faith.
Carse on the outside as county future in focus
Carse’s situation is more complex. On the field, he remains a factor for Durham. He took match figures of 4-95 in their win over Gloucestershire last week, proof that the rhythm and skill are still there. Yet even at county level, the picture is not straightforward: he was not selected in Durham’s XI for their match against Northamptonshire, which began on Wednesday.
For England, the decision is cleaner. With the investigation ongoing and other seamers fit and firing, they have chosen clarity over complication.
Pakistan rip it up before Edgbaston
If England’s changes are measured, Pakistan’s are anything but.
On the eve of the Edgbaston Test, Pakistan have taken an axe to their set-up: seven players dropped, five uncapped players called up, and the head coach removed. It is a staggering reset in the middle of a series.
Sarfaraz Ahmed has been replaced by Pakistan white-ball coach Mike Hesson, who steps in to oversee a side suddenly stripped of several familiar names. Muhammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman and Khurram Shahzad – all involved in the series so far – are among those jettisoned.
It is a bold, chaotic move from a team searching for answers while England chase a clean sweep. One side fine-tuning, the other tearing up the script. Edgbaston will reveal which approach survives contact with reality.
