England coach Trevor Bayliss says it's possible the team could field two specialist spinners at home after Yorkshire leg-break bowler Adil Rashid was called into the squad for the second Test against Pakistan.

England add premier pace bowler James Anderson, all-rounder Ben Stokes and leg-spinner Adil Rashid into an expanded 14-man squad.

England will embark on their lengthy tour of India later this year with Rajkot hosting the first of the five Test matches from November 9, the cricket boards announce on Friday.

Keen to beat Sri Lanka in their own spin game, Australia rope in local spin great Muttiah Muralidaran to help their slow owlers ahead of the three-Test series beginning at Pallekele later this month.

Jake Ball is set to make his England debut against Pakistan at Lord's on Thursday after captain Alastair Cook confirmed his place in the side a day before the start of the first Test.

The Jason Holder-captained West Indies squad for the upcoming four-Test series against India is released on Monday, with Denesh Ramdin a frustrated absentee.

England batsman Joe Root is confident he can cope with the added responsibility of batting at number three during the upcoming Test series against Pakistan.

Australia opener David Warner says flat pitches rather than bats with thicker edges are the reason batsmen have the upper hand in test cricket.

Pakistan legend Wasim Akram says expected hostility from England fans will not deter convicted spot-fixer Mohammad Amir from leading his country's bowling attack when he returns to the scene of his crime at Lord's next week.

The sub-plot of the England cricket summer, as Pakistan turn the screw on Somerset on the second day of their first practice match of the tour on Monday, is how Mohammad Amir will fare and be received upon his return to the country where he served a jail term in 2010.

England coach Trevor Bayliss believes both Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes could be selected as specialist batsmen for this month's first Test against Pakistan.

England fast bowler James Anderson is "optimistic" he will be fit to play in the first Test against Pakistan after taking tentative steps in his recovery from a rare shoulder injury.

Joe Root and Jos Buttler laid the platform for England's dominant 122-run win over Sri Lanka in the fifth and final one-day international in Cardiff.

Test cricket's newest nations are in despair at plans to split the format into two divisions, fearing it could undo decades of hard-fought progress on the field and kill interest in the game.

Australia coach Darren Lehmann has urged cricket's governing body to help reduce the workload on players competing in all three forms of the game as he fears the current packed schedule is unsustainable.

Test cricket's newest nations are in despair at plans to split the format into two divisions, fearing it could undo decades of hard-fought progress on the field and kill interest in the game.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announces the 30-member preliminary squad for the England series scheduled to begin from October 4 later this year.

Sri Lanka, after being put into bat, made 305 for five against England in a rain-disrupted fourth one-day international at The Oval.

Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal says that the Tigers' lengthy break from international cricket will hamper their chances of performing to their best.

Three One Day Internationals (ODIs), and three different outcomes: a tie, an England win and a washout. As England and Sri Lanka gear up for the penultimate ODI of the series.