Crawley, Pope and Sibley elevated to Test contractsPlayers ‘not blind not blind to reality’, says Ashley GilesAshley Giles insisted England’s cricketers are not blind to the financial uncertainty facing the sport after the latest batch of men’s central contracts were announced despite the fact talks over pay cuts are still ongoing.
Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope and Dom Sibley have earned their first Test deals after encouraging starts to their international careers, while Jonny Bairstow drops off the red-ball list and into apparent white-ball specialism following a year in which he has made only one appearance in the longer format.