Potts pips Overton to place in Test team

DURHAM seamer Matthew Potts will make his England debut in the first LV= Insurance Test against New Zealand today.

The 23-year-old, below, has been picked ahead of Somerset’s Craig Overton and will join an attack led by the two most prolific wicket-takers in English history, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, at Lord’s.

Anderson, 39, and Broad, 35, were dropped for the recent tour of the West Indies but return at the first time of asking under new captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum.

England had already removed some of the uncertainty around their XI by teeing up Jonny Bairstow’s selection at number five, meaning in-form Yorkshire batter Harry Brook must wait for his chance.

Stokes takes over a side from Joe Root that sits bottom of the World Test Championship table following a run of one win in their last 17 games. And the all-rounder has made it clear this is a fresh start for all concerned.

“There’s been a lot of talk about a ‘reset,’ which is a word I don’t like,” he said. “I just see it as a completely blank canvas. I just want everyone to feel free under my captaincy. This is our time and we are going to dictate how things go forward. Everyone is starting fresh, whether it’s Matty Potts or James Anderson and Stuart Broad.” England XI for first Test v New Zealand: Zak Crawley (Kent), Alex Lees (Durham), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Matty

Potts (Durham), Jack Leach (Somerset), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), James Anderson (Lancashire).