LONDON (AP) — Spinner Liam Patterson-White earned his first test call-up for the three-test cricket series away to South Africa while Jacob Bethell is recalled following a knee injury.
England named its squad on Monday for what will be Stephen Fleming’s first series as head coach after Brendan McCullum was fired following a dismal Ashes defeat in Australia.
The 28-year-old Patterson-White is a left-arm finger spinner and took 42 wickets for Nottinghamshire in the top tier of the county championship this season, more than any other spinner, at an average of 25.11. He will form England's bowling unit along with swing specialist Ollie Robinson and pacers Josh Tongue, Jofra Archer and Gus Atkinson.
Veteran batting great Joe Root captains the side as he searches for his England record-extending 42nd test century and looks to close in on 15,000 runs. The 23-year-old Bethell scored a fine century in the fifth test of the Ashes last winter.
“We have selected a strong and balanced squad that is ready for the challenge of facing a South African team that are ICC test world champions and who returned to the top of the ICC test rankings following their recent 2-1 series win over Australia,” England men’s selector Marcus North said.
Patterson-White was selected over Shoaib Bashir, who is named in the England Lions red-ball squad, while spin-bowling allrounder Rehan Ahmed goes into the Lions' white-ball squad.
Pacer Brydon Carse — who was dropped from the test side in August following a late-night incident — is in both of those squads along with experienced batter Ollie Pope, who lost his test place at No. 3 during the Ashes.
It was another blow to Bashir, who has 71 test wickets and was once a mainstay of the side under former captain Ben Stokes, who often pushed for his inclusion and backed him strongly.
However, the 23-year-old was part of the Ashes tour and did not play a single test, with Stokes preferring to use the part-time spin of batter Will Jacks.
Carse toiled at times against aggressive Australian batting, but emerged with credit for bowling long shifts in the heat and for taking 22 wickets, albeit somewhat expensively.
Carse was dropped after images on social media showed him in police handcuffs outside a nightclub in Derby in late August, following a game with Stokes for their club side Durham.
The first test opens on Dec. 17 at Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, with the second test beginning Dec. 26 at Centurion Park in Centurion, and the potentially decisive third test at Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town starting Jan. 3.
Before the first test, Fleming's side plays a warm-up match against a Cricket South Africa (CSA) XI in Durban.
The Lions tour is from Nov. 26 to Dec. 21.
See AP’s full cricket coverage here
FILE - Former New Zealand cricketer and Chennai Super Kings team coach Stephen Fleming speaks during a press conference in Bangalore, India, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi, file)
England's Jacob Bethell hits a six during the second T20 cricket match between England and India in Manchester, England, Saturday, July 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Pope Leo XIV renewed his call Monday for Argentina to protect its weakest and most vulnerable people as he visited a home for people with disabilities in a symbolically powerful rebuke of President Javier Milei’s austerity measures.
On his first full day in Argentina, Leo made a pilgrimage to the Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole, south of Buenos Aires. Founded by an Italian priest in 1935, the institution houses more than 400 people with disabilities on its 123-acre (50-hectare) grounds.
The center, known as the “city of charity,” has been hit hard by Milei’s austerity measures, which have severely affected healthcare and social services. Milei has taken his signature chain saw to specialized therapy programs that for decades have been a lifeline for many of Argentina’s estimated 5 million people with disabilities, freezing payments and dismantling a vital safety net.
Some residents and employees wept as Leo arrived Monday and embraced people in wheelchairs. He chatted with them and blessed them and told them their lives were a blessing, not a burden on society.
“You can help us to remember the foundation of the dignity of every human being and what is truly important in life,” Leo said in the center’s chapel. He said he dreamed that Argentines would be inspired to replace the pursuit of economic success and the “cult of outward appearances” with “great works of charity” like the Cottolengo home.
“A nation’s progress is also measured by how it welcomes all people with disabilities and particular needs,” he said.
Argentina’s Congress overrode Milei’s veto last year to pass a law increasing funding for disability care. But his administration has resisted implementing it, citing concerns that it would undermine his hard-won fiscal balance. Care homes such as Cottolengo are still owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Leo’s visit comes days before the Senate is due to consider legislation that would set aside money for disability benefits in next year’s budget. Milei opposes the measure.
Given the circumstances, it was deeply significant that Leo chose to start his visit to Argentina by meeting with the Cottolengo guests, said Kuyen Rolon Rey, a volunteer at the home.
“The people here deserve this grace,” Rolon Rey said. “Choosing such a small place, but big if measured with love, makes us very happy.”
The visit kicked off a busy day for Leo in which the American pope, fulfilling the unfinished legacy of Argentine Pope Francis, is emphasizing Catholic social teaching that calls for putting the weakest and most vulnerable at the center of economic policy.
Upon arrival Sunday and with Milei at his side, Leo cited Francis’ frequent refrain that money must serve and not rule: “The economy must serve the person, not the person the economy,” Leo said in his first speech in Argentina.
It’s a message Leo is expected to repeat later Monday when he meets with business leaders, union representatives and leaders of popular movements at the Catholic University of Argentina.
Among those invited are domestic manufacturers battered by cheap imports since Milei scrapped long-standing trade barriers, and members of Argentina’s largest labor confederation, who took their worries over job losses and shrinking wages to the Vatican in September.
Since Milei took office in late 2023, his austerity agenda has made him an icon of the global conservative backlash against the liberal establishment. Much like its allies in the Trump administration, Milei's government has portrayed the cuts to disability programs as part of a reform process aimed at eliminating fraud and waste in the federal bureaucracy.
For many Argentines, the day’s highlight was to be Leo’s late-morning Mass at the Monumento a los Españoles, which was expected to draw as many as 2 million people. The same site hosted the last papal Mass in Argentina, celebrated by St. John Paul II nearly 40 years ago.
Thousands arrived at midnight to secure a good spot for Leo’s first Mass in Argentina.
Isabel Martín, 73, came with her parish group from San Andrés Avelino. She said she was praying for Leo to “touch the heart” of Milei, whose spending cuts have also hit pensioners hard.
“The pope was very specific in his message yesterday,” she said, referring to Leo’s inaugural speech to Milei. “The weakest cannot be the ones carrying the burden of the adjustment, especially poor retirees. If anyone can make him reconsider, it’s the pope.”
Argentina’s minimum pension is approximately $300, about a quarter of what an older adult needs to cover medicine, housing and food.
Leo’s message was also resonating with younger Argentines, who have shown the sharpest decline in Catholic practice of any age group. Margarita Lanús celebrated her 16th birthday Monday while waiting for Leo’s Mass, sharing a cake on the sidewalk with her large family.
“I really like that he says things as they are; he goes straight to the point,” she said.
Leo has been welcomed by huge and adoring crowds in Buenos Aires, the second stop of his three-nation tour of South America that ends later this week in his second homeland of Peru.
Late Sunday, groups of faithful chanting “Pope Leo, Pope Leo,” and “Long live the pope” gathered in front of the Vatican's embassy, or nunciature, where Leo is staying. A smiling Leo stepped outside to greet them and offered his blessing.
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AP reporter Isabel DeBre contributed.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV, left, meets with President Javier Milei at Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, on the third day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (Tiziana Fabi/Pool Photo via AP)
An image of Pope Leo XIV is projected onto the Obelisk on the day of the pontiff's arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
An image of Pope Leo XIV is projected onto the Obelisk on the day of his arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Worshippers sleep while awaiting a Mass to be celebrated by Pope Leo XIV at the Monumento de los Españoles in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026.. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Pope Leo XIV shakes hands with Argentina's President Javier Milei as he meets authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps at Palacio Libertad in Buenos Aires, on the third day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
