JONNY BAIRSTOW has been sensationally dumped as a Test player for England’s tour of New Zealand later this year.

Bairstow pays the price for a disappointing Ashes series with the bat and England’s new wicketkeeper is likely to be Jos Buttler.


It is a dramatic call by chief selector Ed Smith who consulted captain Joe Root before making the decision.

The move comes just days after Bairstow was handed a full England contract worth around £650,000.

The Test squad includes uncapped batsmen Dominic Sibley and Zak Crawley as well as Lancashire fast bowler Saqib Mahmood and Red Rose leg-spinner Matt Parkinson.

Surrey Ollie Pope, who played two Tests in 2018, is also called up, while quick bowlers James Anderson and Mark Wood were not considered because of injury.

Bairstow is included in the squad for England’s five T20 matches, with the likes of Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Buttler and Jofra Archer rested for the shortest format.

That experimental squad group includes new faces in Somerset batsman Tom Banton, Worcestershire seamer Pat Brown as well as Mahmood and Parkinson.

Moeen Ali, who withdrew from red-ball cricket last week, is not included in the T20 party even though he specifically said on Saturday that he is available for those games.

World Cup star Jason Roy, one of the most punishing white ball batsmen on the planet, is also excluded.

Test squad in full: Root (capt), Archer, Broad, Burns, Buttler, Crawley, S. Curran, Denly, Leach, Mahmood, Parkinson, Pope, Sibley, Stokes, Woakes.

T20 squad in full: Morgan (capt), Bairstow, Banton, Billings, Brown, S. Curran, T. Curran, Denly, Gregory, Jordan, Mahomood, Malan, Parkinson, Rashid, Vince.


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