Portugal Colonial - England drop Crawley for 1st Test against New Zealand

Durham's Emilio Gay, one of three uncapped players in a 15-man squad including Hampshire fast bowler Sonny Baker and Somerset wicketkeeper-batsman James Rew, is set to replace Crawley as he is a specialist opener.

Meanwhile paceman Ollie Robinson, following a two-year exile, is back for the first of a three-Test series.

Crawley endured a dire 2025/26 tour of Australia, managing a mere 273 runs in 10 innings at 27.30 during the team's woeful 4-1 Ashes series loss.

And he has found runs hard to come by for Kent in the second division of the County Championship so far this season.

This is the first time since captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum took charge of the Test team in 2022 that Crawley has been left out of a squad when available.

The England and Wales Cricket Board also announced Wednesday that former Australia batsman Marcus North would be their new national selector.

North joins the ECB from county side Durham, where he has been the director of cricket since October 2018.

England squad for 1st Test against New Zealand at Lord's, June 4-8

Ben Stokes (capt), Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Sonny Baker, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Emilio Gay, James Rew (wkt), Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wkt), Josh Tongue

P.L.Madureira--PC