Cliff Notes – Jamie Overton replaces Saqib Mahmood in England XI for third ODI
- Ben Duckett has been retained for the third ODI against South Africa, despite being rested for the upcoming T20Is, as England aims to rejuvenate key players ahead of a busy winter schedule.
- Jamie Overton replaces Saqib Mahmood in the squad, marking his first appearance for England since pausing his red-ball ambitions, indicating his continued role in the white-ball setup.
- England’s recent ODI performance has been poor, losing eight out of 11 matches this year, raising concerns about their automatic qualification for the 2027 World Cup.
Jamie Overton replaces Saqib Mahmood in England XI for third ODI
Matt Roller
CloseMatt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98Sep 6, 2025, 01:29 PM
Ben Duckett has been backed to end his international season in style in Southampton on Sunday, keeping his place for the third ODI against South Africa despite England’s decision to rest him for next week’s T20Is.
England have made a single change from the team that lost by five runs at Lord’s to go 2-0 down in the three-match series, with Jamie Overton replacing Saqib Mahmood. It means that they will again be relying on Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks and potentially Joe Root to share the workload of a fifth bowler, after Bethell and Jacks returned combined figures of 1 for 112 in 10 overs on Thursday.
Duckett is one of three England players – along with Harry Brook and Jamie Smith – who has featured in all 14 of their home internationals this season: six Tests, five ODIs and three T20Is. Since the start of the Hundred last month, he has only gone past 20 once in 10 innings and followed his 5 in the first ODI at Headingley with an uncharacteristically scratchy 14 off 33 balls at Lord’s.
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He has since spoken to Brendon McCullum, England’s head coach, and reached the decision to miss next week’s T20Is, with Sam Curran replacing him in the squad. Marcus Trescothick, one of McCullum’s assistants, said that the call was designed to ensure Duckett is “firing” ahead of a busy winter schedule, which includes the Ashes in Australia followed by a T20 World Cup.
“Brendon spoke to him over the last few days, trying to get a gauge of where he’s at,” Trescothick said. “You look at every situation individually and in its own way, looking at the volume of cricket they’ve played and by chatting with them to see how they’re feeling… This is the best [decision] to maximise performances going forward as we head into a big winter.
“We need certain players to be firing, and Ben is certainly one of those… We need the boys firing going into November, December, January. That’s an important time. It’s not to say things aren’t important coming up, but sometimes you just have to take your foot off the gas a bit and rejuvenate the mind. Then, you can get back on the horse and crack on.”
Duckett’s retention means that Tom Banton, the spare batter in their squad, will not feature in the series barring a late withdrawal. But he has not been released to play for Somerset in their T20 Blast quarter-final against Warwickshire on Saturday night, and will instead stay in Southampton on standby.
McCullum took over England’s white-ball teams in January – becoming coach across formats – but has failed to address their slide in 50-over cricket. They have lost eight out of 11 ODIs this year, including all three matches at the Champions Trophy, and sit eighth in the ICC’s rankings after a sustained run of poor results.
Eight teams will qualify for the 2027 World Cup automatically via the rankings – with South Africa and Zimbabwe guaranteed spots as Full-Member co-hosts – so England would likely have to slip below both West Indies and Bangladesh to miss out. But the mere notion of having to play in the global qualifier is a source of embarrassment for the 2019 world champions.
“We’re in an interesting position where we need to climb those rankings,” Trescothick said. “Longer term, there’s a bigger picture: we need to look at being at the top of those rankings and beyond. We want to go and compete in the biggest competitions and we’ve got to be a team that has grown from where we have been to compete like we did in 2019.
“The journey hasn’t been easy, of course not, but I definitely feel we’re improving and moving in the right direction even though the last two results have been disappointing… We’ve made a few changes in recent times since Brendon took over, and we feel like we’re starting to play better cricket generally.”
Overton’s inclusion means he will make his first appearance for England since his decision to put his red-ball ambitions on hold took the team’s management by surprise. Rob Key, England’s managing director, said Overton’s decision was “unexpected”, but his selection for the third ODI confirms that he remains part of their white-ball plans.
England XI for the third ODI vs South Africa: 1 Jamie Smith, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Joe Root, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Jacob Bethell, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Adil Rashid
