‘Hartley will be a handful out there’
Bashir and Hartley are selected instead of the experienced Hampshire all-rounder Liam Dawson and Surrey’s all-formatter Will Jacks, who instead will both be playing in South Africa’s SA20 short-form competition. Liam Livingstone is also not selected, having made his Test debut as an all-rounder a year ago, while Moeen Ali re-retired at the end of the Ashes.
Key confirmed that neither Jacks or Dawson made themselves unavailable for the series, but said the style of bowling and a desire for both to being playing cricket not carrying drinks contributed.
“Will Jacks – you’re making a decision, is it better for them to be going around carrying drinks throughout India or can they go and play franchise cricket when we’ve got a World T20 coming up?” said Key.
“Liam Dawson is probably not someone who wants to go around India as the 15th or 16th man – if he’s going to play and if he’s going to feature then he’s going to want to do that, but if he’s not I don’t think it’s high on his agenda to be going as essentially a replacement bowler.
“We also think for the style of bowling someone like Hartley – our bet is that he’ll be a real handful out there and then you’ve obviously got Jack Leach who will lead the attack with the ball.
“For a while we have been trying to earmark the spinners we think that will be most useful in India. Someone like Tom Hartley for instance. We’ve been looking at him for a while, he’s been on the Lions for a couple of years. It’s not conditions that actually you come across in England at all.
“You almost have to disregard what’s happened in county cricket, because it’s a very different style of bowling, and trying to work out who will be the best players for what we will come up against.”
There are four seamers in the squad, with James Anderson, Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood and Atkinson – who has made both debuts in both white-ball formats this year – all selected. Josh Tongue was ruled out with a pectoral injury. There will also be an England Lions tour in January, which could see players such as Brydon Carse force their way into Test contention.
Chris Woakes is not selected despite being England’s Ashes man of the series, with his poor overseas record counting against him. Instead, he will play T20 in the UAE at the ILT20.
