Olly Stone will fly home from England’s tour of Pakistan on Wednesday ahead of his wedding this weekend, and appears unlikely to return in time to be considered for the second Test.
Stone took seven wickets in two Tests against Sri Lanka at the end of the English summer, which were his first caps for three years in the format. Brydon Carse was preferred as England’s high-pace option for the first Test in Multan, which started on Monday, which has freed Stone up to fly home earlier than initially planned ahead of his wedding on Saturday.
The date of Stone’s return is unconfirmed and may depend on the status of England’s other fast bowlers after the first Test. But with a very tight turnaround between his wedding and Tuesday’s second Test, he is unlikely to feature. Carse, Gus Atkinson and Chris Woakes are the three seamers picked to play in the first Test, with Matthew Potts the other fast bowler in the squad.
England’s management are understood to be happy for Stone to leave Pakistan, given he was not included in their last batch of central contracts and his wedding was arranged long before his recall. He spoke to Rob Key and Brendon McCullum – England’s managing director and coach respectively – before the tour, who agreed that he should head home to get married.
“We booked the wedding on the basis of me only playing for Notts at the time,” Stone recently told the BBC. “Jess said she was happy to move the wedding and I was adamant on keeping it where it was if possible. For what she has given up and sacrificed for me, I thought the least I could do was to try and make it work.”
In a previous era, the seamer Tony Pigott postponed his own wedding at short notice in order to play what proved to be his only Test on England’s 1984 tour to New Zealand. More recently, contracted players have rescheduled weddings due to clashes: Joe Root said on Saturday that he and his wife Carrie had rearranged their own “three times because of different tours”.
Root said that Stone would leave the tour with his teammates’ best wishes. “It’s a special time in anyone’s life,” he said. “I’m really excited for him. I’m sure he is all over the place with everything that’s going on, but it’ll be very special for him – and his wife – starting a different chapter in his life. We’ll all be raising a cold water to him at some point, celebrating.”
