Battling with multiple injury concerns over their first-choice players and also their lack of form in the ongoing Ashes series, England have added Sam Billings into their squad for the fifth and final Test of the series in Australia.
Billings is already in Australia and playing in the Big Bash League and it was being reported before the Boxing Day Test that England could well rope in a few players from the tournament to bolster their squad.
England faced as many as two major injury concerns in the ongoing Test match in Sydney with side strain to Ben Stokes and ball hitting the thumb of Jonny Bairstow. To add to their woes, Jos Buttler has been woefully out of form both with the bat and also with wicketkeeping gloves behind the wicket.
England are 0-3 down in the series and are not in a dominant position in the ongoing Sydney Test either and hence Billings’ addition could also be seen as just a makeshift decision to cover for the injury concerns.
There have been reports suggesting Ollie Pope has been seen practising wicketkeeping in the nets and hence Billings’ addition into the squad could also suggest the end of the road for Jos Buttler in the longest format for now.