Jamie Overton: England all-rounder steps back from Test cricket

Injuries and white-ball commitments have limited Overton to only five first-class matches in the past two years.

In that sense, a break from red-ball cricket is no surprise. He can reduce his amount of pain, lengthen his career and boost his bank balance on the franchise circuit, where he will be in big demand.

On the other hand, it is another twist in some strange decision-making by the England Test team.

Despite being around the squad for most of the summer, Overton always looked a poor pick for the final Test against India at The Oval.

His hit-the-deck style was ill-suited to the movement on offer. Though he admirably took his share of the burden when Woakes got injured, Overton managed only two wickets and contributed nine runs across two innings with the bat.

Perhaps his style of bowling would have been better suited to Australia, even if realistically he would have been quite far down the list of options. From the four frontline bowlers that played in England’s last Test before the Ashes, they have one injured pacer in Woakes and one absent from red-ball cricket in Overton.

More broadly, Overton had overtaken Potts and Cook in the pecking order, despite little evidence to suggest that should be the case. Both Potts and Cook probably have cause to feel hard done by.

England will name an Ashes squad later this month.

Fitness permitting, the five first-choice fast bowlers will be Wood, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue, Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse. They will hopefully be supported by a fully fit Ben Stokes. There is likely to be room for one more quick in the main squad, which could be a bolter like Sonny Baker. Reinforcements will be available in the Lions.

For Overton, it is likely the end of a Test career that spanned three years yet yielded only two caps.

In a quirk of fate, he and twin Craig have had separate Test careers that overlapped only once, when they were in the same squad against New Zealand at Headingley in 2022.