Josh Tongue's England debut banks £50,000 cash win for family friend

As England gear up to take on Ireland for a one-off Test ahead of the Ashes series, the Ben Stokes-led side announced their line-up for their clash against the Andrew Balbirnie-led side.

England announced the name of 25-year-old Josh Tongue in their squad to take on Ireland, and as the pacer made his debut for the national team, one of his family friends, Tim Piper, a pub landlord, is set to win £50,000 after backing him to be a future England cricketer when Toungue was just 11 years old.

Running the Cricketers Arms in Redditch, Worcestershire, Piper was set to win the amount after he predicted Tongue to be a future cricketer for the English national team. He will collect the sum after a 500/1 gamble. Tongue is a part of the seam bowling arsenal of England that consists of Stuart Broad and Matthew Potts. 

It's just such a wonderful story in itself: Piper

Seeing Tongue make his much-awaited debut for England, the close family friend opined that he used to go see Tongue play in the ground with his dad.

"I used to go and see him in the garden playing with his dad when he was just a year old and then when he was two or three he was playing in the nets and he knew how to bowl properly with leg-spin, top-spin and everything," Tim Piper was quoted as saying by the Cricketer. 

"Of course I'm not going to play down £50,000, but it's just such a wonderful story in itself. When he was younger he started to get better and better, batting with pace and getting better with bowling.He was touch and go thinking of calling it a day and 12 months later here he is playing for England," he added. 

Tongue became the 711th player to play Test cricket for England. He recently told what he felt when he was informed by coach Brendon McCullum about his inclusion in the XI for the one-off Test. “It’s an amazing feeling. (I’m) speechless, really. Even from when I got the first call-up to be in the squad… now being in the actual team, it’s just a dream come true really. Baz (Brendon McCullum) came up to me just before training finished today. I had just finished a gym session, actually, and he came up to me and gave me the good news,” Tongue said.