• Saqib Mahmood will return in February for England Lions’ Sri Lanka tour.
• He missed the 2022 home international season due to a stress fracture.
• 28 Lions players include three members of the Under-19 group

Saqib Mahmood will return to action in February during the white-ball phase of England Lions’ trip of Sri Lanka. A stress fracture in his back kept him out of the 2022 home international season.

Mahmood, 25, impressed in England’s tour of the Caribbean in early 2022, taking six wickets at 22.83 in two matches. Since his May County Championship match for Lancashire against Gloucestershire, he hasn’t played.

He was part of the fast bowler recovery programme in the UAE in October, as was Brydon Carse, who is also in the white-ball squad after suffering a toe injury last summer against South Africa.

Yorkshire’s Matt Fisher, who made his Test debut with Mahmood in March, is one of four players picked for both red- and white-ball legs. Somerset’s Tom Abell, Lancashire’s Tom Hartley, and Essex’s Sam Cook are also in both squads.

Alex Lees, who opened with Zak Crawley in 2022, was dropped for the current tour of Pakistan in favour of Ben Duckett. Haseeb Hameed, who scored a century for the Lions against the senior squad in October, was dropped following the previous Ashes tour in 2021-22.

The 28 Lions players include three members of the Under-19 group that reached the World Cup final in Antigua last year. Jacob Bethell, Tom Prest, and James Rew were vital in Rehan Ahmed’s Test debut last month. Ahmed is not a Lion, but Mason Crane and Matt Critchley are.

Bethell and Rew are playing grade cricket in Australia and will join the Under-19s for this month’s two Youth Tests before joining the Lions ODI team.

ECB Performance Director Mo Bobat remarked, “This is a terrific opportunity to expose them to A-team cricket in the sub-continent.”

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