It was a selection akin to a movie Easter egg. A nod to preceding works, like a Cornetto or colour-based last names, which in this case was left-field selections.

This winter will be three years since Will Jacks ' previous two Test caps, an anniversary he will mark as a member of England 's most optimistic Ashes tour in 15 years. And the thread of selecting a player with just five first-class appearances in the last two summers tethers Jacks to 2024's selection trilogy of Shoaib Bashir, Josh Hull and Jacob Bethell as unorthodox picks.

Much like Jacks, those three were the kind of calls that required a degree of imagination. Squint hard enough at the time and you could see why Bashir was different to other English spinners, that Bethell had the wares to be a world-beater and the v

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