England call up 6ft 7in Josh Hull after Mark Wood limps out of Sri Lanka series

England have sprung a surprise by calling up Leicestershire’s Josh Hull for the rest of their Test series against Sri Lanka after Mark Wood was ruled out with a thigh strain.
Hull, a left-arm quick who turned 20 on Tuesday, has a limited red-ball record at domestic level. Prior to Leicestershire’s County Championship fixture against Gloucestershire this week, he had 15 wickets from nine first-class matches at an average of 58.06. In Gloucestershire’s first innings at Bristol, Hull returned figures of one for 133 from 23 overs.
But Hull did impress for England Lions against Sri Lanka earlier this month, taking five wickets in the match and accounting for the experienced middle order of Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva in the tourists’ first innings.
Once again from the current England regime, this is a preference of natural attributes over statistics. Hull’s height – 6ft 7in – was mentioned in the press release announcing his inclusion, and his left-arm angle marks him out from the rest in the current squad. England can point to off-spinner Shoaib Bashir as an example of a young bowler finding more success at Test level than in the County Championship.
Hull came to attention last year when helping Leicestershire win the One-Day Cup, taking 17 wickets in the tournament and defending eight runs off the last over of the final against Hampshire.
His inclusion comes after Wood’s thigh strain was sustained on day three of England’s first Test victory at Old Trafford. England also have Olly Stone in their squad for the remainder of the series, with the Nottinghamshire quick more of a like-for-like replacement for Wood than Hull.
Wood’s absence is the only change from the squad for the first Test, with Jordan Cox, who struck a 124-ball 141 for Essex against Hampshire on Friday, remaining the spare batter in the 13-man group.