Lyth dropped, Hales recalled for UAE tour

England have dropped opening batsman Adam Lyth from their Test squad, and have instead recalled Alex Hales for the tour to the UAE to face Pakistan in October, while Gary Ballance is also absent.

The ECB made a number of changes to the squad that won the Ashes, with Nottinghamshire batsman James Taylor and Surrey spinner Zafar Ansari, who is uncapped, also called up.

Lyth's absence is not surprising, given his poor Ashes series, where he averaged 12.77 with the bat. Hales, while not impressing in the ODI series recently, has had a decent County season in whites.

Spinner Stephen Parry and Sussex all-rounder Chris Jordan were recalled to the T20 side, the latter after a long injury lay-off. All-rounder Ben Stokes has been rested for the limited-overs portion.

National Selector James Whitaker said: "We would like to congratulate Alastair Cook, Eoin Morgan, Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace on the excellent results they have achieved this summer across all three different formats.

"We are particularly pleased with the way in which a host of new, young players have swiftly adapted to international cricket and made their mark on the England team in such style.

"The challenge we face against Pakistan will be very different and the composition of our squads reflects the conditions we expect to encounter in the UAE.

"Zafar Ansari’s potential excites us and he will provide strong competition for Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali in the Test squad after enjoying an excellent domestic season with both bat and ball for Surrey.

"Alex Hales has scored heavily for Nottinghamshire in First Class cricket this season, has shown he can play match-winning innings for England in white ball cricket and fully deserves an opportunity to compete for a place at the top of the order in our Test side.

"In line with our recent decision to rest Joe Root for the Royal London One-Day Series against Australia, we have opted not to include Ben Stokes in our One-Day or T20 International squads.

"Ben has been an outstanding performer for England this summer and this decision reflects a desire to manage his workload across a busy winter period in all three formats of the game.

"He will come back into contention for the white-ball format when we consider the make-up of our squads for the tour of South Africa later in the year."

Meanwhile, the ECB have also secured the services of Durham veteran Paul Collingwood and Sri Lanka batting legend Mahela Jayawardene in consulting roles over the next few months.

England Test squad: Alastair Cook, Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Zafar Ansari, Jonny Bairstow, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, Mark Wood

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