Billings ’90 minutes’ away from catching a flight home before Ashes call-up

Sam Billings was “90 minutes” away from catching a flight back to the UK prior to his call-up to England’s Ashes squad, according to the team management. As he undertook a nine-hour drive from Brisbane to Sydney to provide wicketkeeping cover ahead of next week’s fifth Test in Hobart.

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Billings, who has just completed a Big Bash spell with Sydney Thunder. He had been set to return home to prepare for England’s T20I tour of the Caribbean later this month. But, with Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow both being sent for X-rays after sustaining hand injuries during the fourth Test. Billings has now joined the touring party in Sydney. There he will undergo a period of isolation in the team hotel. Subject to returning a negative Covid test result.

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“Just an observation… Australia is a really big place!” Billings wrote in a post on Twitter, while taking a break from his journey at a resting place near Newcastle in New South Wales

Billings is yet to make his Test debut. But he has spoken previously of his ambitions to break into the red-ball side. He has played 58 limited-overs matches for England and averages 34.29 in first-class cricket with six centuries.

He now looks set to become England’s 700th Test cricketer at Hobart next week. Despite an impressive stand-in display from Ollie Pope on day four. Pope equaled the record of the dismissal for a substitute player with four catches behind the stumps.

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“It’s a bit like the goalkeeper If you don’t really notice them, that means that they’ve done very well,” Graham Thorpe, England’s assistant coach, said. “After a while I realized that it was Ollie Pope back out there again, keeping wicket, so I thought he did fantastically well.”

Given the extent of England’s injuries. However, Pope may well be required as a specialist batter at Hobart. But Thorpe said that Billings’ call-up would give the squad options going into the fifth Test.

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Buttler‘s battle for form with the bat was compounded on the third day when he was dismissed for an eight-ball duck to take his tally for the series to 96 runs at 16.00 from seven innings. He reportedly struggled to grip the bat properly during his stay after sustaining a hand injury while keeping on the second day.

Bairstow meanwhile compiled a gutsy century in England’s first innings. Eventually falling for 113 on the fourth morning – despite being left in agony by a savage blow to the right thumb from Pat Cummins.

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