England all-format players who have returned to the UK following the suspension of the IPL will not be rushed back to the Test squad for the series against New Zealand, ECB’s director of cricket, Ashley Giles has confirmed. He said that it will be up to players’ individual choice on whether they want to play in the series or take some time off with a lot of matches line up going forward this year.
"All these guys are currently in quarantine and have had a number of spells in quarantine and bubbles in this last period. Some of it's their choice, I get that. We need to look after them, with the amount of cricket they've got coming up. We're not going to rush or force them back into cricket,” Gile said.
Instead, he said, England will blood in some new faces from county cricket in order to strengthen their bench strength in the season that will also have an Ashes series at the end of the year.
"What we do know and what's not going to change is that given the weight of cricket, given the Ashes series, and we don't know what conditions that's going to be played in with regard to a Covid environment, we are going to need a bigger group of players. We may also choose against New Zealand to look at some new faces,” Giles added.
It would open a window of opportunity for players such as Ollie Robinson and James Bracey, who have an excellent track record in the county circuit to deserve a place in the squad to face New Zealand. Robinson, 27, has played 62 first-class matches and scalped 275 wickets at a phenomenal average of 21.05 runs per wicket and strike rate of 42 balls per wicket. On the other hand, Bracey has amassed 2574 runs from 44 games at an average of 37 runs per innings six centuries and 12 fifties.
England played both Jos Buttler and Ben Foakes at different times during the tour of India and with the former under quarantine and Gile’s insisting on not rushing them back, it could well be the first opportunity for Foakes to play a Test match in England.