Hull, who only turned 20 last month, was a left-field replacement when Mark Wood was ruled out of the series with a thigh injury. He has taken 11 wickets at 84.54 in his nine County Championship appearances for Leicestershire, but his physical attributes piqued the interest of England’s management and he took match figures of 5 for 74 on England Lions debut last month.
He has also been named in England’s white-ball squads to face Australia later this month – though his involvement at The Oval will likely rule him out of contention for the first T20I at the Utilita Bowl next Wednesday, with a 24-hour turnaround from the scheduled end of the third Test.
Ollie Pope, who is standing in for the injured Ben Stokes as captain, said that Hull has “a massive ceiling” – figuratively, as well as literally. “When you’re 6ft 7in and you can get it down pushing up to the 85-90mph mark, and with a bit of swing with the left-arm angle, there’s a lot to like about it,” Pope said. “It’s a really exciting week for him.”
England XI vs Sri Lanka: 1 Dan Lawrence, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Olly Stone, 10 Josh Hull, 11 Shoaib Bashir
Source: ESPN Crickinfo