India made three changes to their playing XI in the fourth Test match between England and India at Manchester, whereas England made only one.
To replace the injured Shoaib Bashir, who was struck on the hand by Rishabh Pant during the third test at Lord’s, the hosts, England, brought in spin bowling all-rounder Liam Dawson. In test cricket, switching out a spinner is rather common. However, Liam Dawson’s involvement is more intriguing for England and international cricket than it appears.
Who Is Liam Dawson?
English spin-bowling all-rounder Liam Dawson represents Hampshire in county cricket. After beginning his career as a top-order batter, the slow left-arm orthodox spinner gradually shifted his emphasis to bowling. The 35-year-old all-rounder made his ODI, Test, and T20I debut back in 2016. He played his last Test in 2017 and returned to the longest format after an eight-year hiatus.
The intriguing thing is that Dawson has more than 10,000 first-class runs in his career, despite returning to the English team primarily as a bowling all-rounder. There are currently no Indian batters with that many first-class runs. Only a small number of No. 8 batters worldwide have 18 first-class hundreds and 56 fifties on their resumes. In his career, he has also taken 371 first-class wickets. Dawson has taken 21 wickets and amassed 536 runs at 44.66 this season.
Liam Dawson has even got the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal on his return. He last played Test cricket against India in Chennai, where he picked up two wickets. It was the same match where Karun Nair smashed the historic triple century. The Jaiswal wicket was his first International wicket in 8 years and he would be hoping to make a lot more contribution in this Manchester Test.