LONDON, May 25: England called up uncapped Glamorgan quick bowler Simon Jones on Saturday to add the option of raw pace to their attack for the second Test against Sri Lanka starting on Thursday in Birmingham.

Jones, 23, joined an unchanged squad which drew the first Test after fighting back from the follow-on.

Sri Lanka scored 555 in their first innings at Lord’s and the England bowling attack looked anaemic on a flat wicket.

Jones, who attended England’s National Academy in Australia under Rod Marsh last northern winter, has taken 14 wickets in first class cricket this season, including a career-best 6-45 against Derbyshire.

“Simon is young and raw but he has an outstanding natural asset in his speed. And we feel that we would like to have him at our disposal until we have had a chance to look at the pitch and assess how it will play,” chairman of selectors David Graveney said on Saturday.

“The Lord’s Test showed that Sri Lanka have a very talented batting line-up and if we continue to play on bland surfaces that favour the batsmen, we need to have other options available in our bowling attack,” Graveney added.

“The two quickest English bowlers in County cricket at present are Simon Jones and Stephen Harmison of Durham. We did not consider Stephen for this Test match due to injury but we feel that this is a good opportunity for Simon Jones.”

England’s bowlers Andy Caddick, Matthew Hoggard, Dominic Cork and Andrew Flintoff toiled to little avail against the Sri Lankans and captain Nasser Hussain said afterwards the side should not rely on playing to English conditions to get results.

Jones, son of former England and Glamorgan player Jeff, could unsettle Sri Lanka’s batsmen with his firepower on a hard track.

But, after recent rain the pitch at Edgbaston is likely to favour seamers and Jones, whose accuracy is less developed than his speed, may well be sent back to his county.

Graveney said selectors had decided to call up 14 players instead of dropping one in case Cork failed to recover in time from a groin injury.

Of the 13 at Lord’s, Alex Tudor was 12th man and spinner Ashley Giles went home early.

Squad: Nasser Hussain (captain), Mark Butcher, Andy Caddick, Dominic Cork, John Crawley, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones, Alec Stewart, Graham Thorpe, Marcus Trescothick, Alex Tudor, Michael Vaughan.

—Reuters