England call upon Steve Finn to replace the injured Mark Wood

After sealing a grand 239-run win at The Oval, England retained the same squad for the final Test at Manchester, barring a forced change. Middlesex fast bowler Steve Finn has been called into the squad to replace Mark Wood, who missed the third Test match due to a heel injury.

Wood’s loss is Roland-Jones’ gain

Wood’s misfortune paved the way for 29-year-old Toby Roland-Jones’ debut in the iconic 100th Test at The Oval. It was a memorable debut for Roland-Jones, who is a teammate of Finn at Middlesex, as he went on to claim a five wicket haul on debut, a feat which was last achieved by Graham Onions in 2009. He finished with a match haul of 8 wickets and narrowly missed on bagging the Man of the Match award.

Steve Finn last featured in a Test for England in last October when England succumbed to a loss against the Asian Tigers away from home. He failed to pick a single wicket in 11 overs of bowling in the entire Test match at Dhaka. Overall, the tall fast bowler has appeared in 36 Tests for England, claiming 125 wickets at 30.40. He has 5 five-wicket hauls to his name with a personal best of 6/79, which he claimed against Australia at Birmingham in 2015.

A foot in the door for Jennings

Struggling opener Keaton Jennings has been given another opportunity to open alongside England legend Alistair Cook at the Old Trafford. Since making a century on debut in India last year, Jennings has struggled to live up to the expectations. This summer has been very dry as far as runs are concerned as the left-hander has managed to score just 92 runs in 6 innings in the series highlighting that he is still wet behind the ears.

A steady 48 in the second innings at The Oval might give him a wee bit of confidence going into the final Test. Jennings knows that the munificence of the English selectors wouldn’t last beyond the series hence he needs to score runs in Manchester.

England squad: Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Liam Dawson, Steven Finn, Keaton Jennings, Dawid Malan, Toby Roland-Jones, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Tom Westley.