Fleming's first squad: Bashir sent to the Lions, Patterson-White leapfrogs the queue

Stephen Fleming's first act as England's Test coach was to pick a squad of 15 for a three-Test tour of South Africa that contains no out-and-out spinner.

The nearest thing is Liam Patterson-White, Nottinghamshire's left-arm orthodox allrounder, who gets his maiden Test call at 28. Behind him the slow-bowling department is three part-timers: captain Joe Root, Dan Lawrence and the returning Jacob Bethell.

The bigger headline is who is not on the plane with them. Shoaib Bashir, England's only specialist red-ball spinner on a full central contract, has been put in the England Lions red-ball squad that will shadow the tour. Rehan Ahmed is in the Lions 50-over group. Jack Leach, 39 Tests and none since October 2024, was not considered at all.

That is not a tweak. That is a new coach announcing that the spin pecking order he inherited no longer exists.

North's explanation is about direction, not quality. South Africa's top order is right-handed, and England wanted the ball turning away from the outside edge. Bashir's off-spin goes the other way. So does Lawrence's.

Patterson-White earned the call with the most wickets by any spinner in Division One this summer, and a century to go with them. North talked about his ability to "hold" an end and then "get into the game at the back end". In plain words: keep it tight on days one to three, then do some damage on a wearing day-five surface.

The catch is the venues. England expect the opening two Tests, at the Wanderers in Johannesburg and SuperSport Park in Centurion, to offer much less turn than South Africa's recent series against Australia did. That is the Highveld. The pitches are hard and bouncy, the altitude helps the quicks, and spinners usually spend the first two days as a holding act. England have picked a holding spinner for exactly those conditions, and kept their attacking one in reserve.

Bethell is back after the knee injury that kept him out of the home Test series against Pakistan, but North gave no assurance he walks straight back in at No. 3. Jordan Cox did well enough in his absence that the selector openly floated either of them opening the batting.

That is a lot of uncertainty for a team five weeks out from a Test. By North's own account, the balance of the side may not be settled until England's warm-up match in Durban. For a coach whose CSK teams were known for stable, unfussy selection, Fleming has started with a lot of open questions.

Josh Tongue will miss the first Test, which starts on December 17, for the birth of his second child. He is also seeing a specialist about a bruised toe, though England expect him to be fine for the rest of the series. That leaves a squad of 14 for the opener, and North said England will bring "one or two players" across from the Lions.

The most interesting name in that Lions group is Brydon Carse. He was stood down after an incident at a Derby nightclub in August and has since been charged with bringing the game into disrepute. North called it "a challenging time" and said the Lions are "the right place" for his return. In other words, he is the obvious replacement for Tongue, and England have not picked him directly.

One more absentee: Sam Curran, a possible seam-bowling allrounder, was unavailable because of his wedding.

Leaving the contracted spinner out of a 15-man squad is a statement, and new coaches like to make one early. Fleming has done it with logic you can defend: a left-armer for a right-handed top order, picked for Highveld pitches where nobody expects much turn.

The risk is that England have built a squad for the first two Tests and not the third. If the series is alive going into the last match and the surface turns, the specialist they need will be on the Lions bus.

Patterson-White's job is simple and not glamorous: bowl tight from one end so England's quicks can rotate at the other. If he does that at Wanderers and Centurion, Fleming's first big call looks clever. If he goes for four an over, Bashir's phone will be ringing before the third Test.