Adam Lyth has been dropped from the England Test squad for the series against Pakistan and replaced by Alex Hales.

Lyth failed to impress during the 3-2 Ashes series win and the England coach Trevor Bayliss indicated that he had sympathy with the Yorkshire left-hander while appreciating that the step-up had proved too daunting.

‘It’s a tough season to come in,’ said Bayliss.

Hayles, who has scored 886 runs at an average of 52 in Division One for Nottinghamshire this summer, now has a chance to establish himself as Alastair Cook’s opening partner .

Bayliss said: ‘One of the things is that no one out there is putting his hand up to say: “I am definitely the player to pick.” There is a number of good players who have had OK seasons. But I don’t think there is anyone who has made five, six, seven hundreds.

‘If someone can do that, you would be putting them in the team almost straight away. There’s a message, or an opportunity, there for county players over these coming months and next season that there are spots available and up for grabs.’

The England and Wales Cricket Board also confirmed the appointment of the former one-day captain Paul Collingwood and recently retired Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene in consultancy roles.

Jayawardene will work with the Test batsmen until the end of the first Test against Pakistan, while Collingwood returns to the set-up to work with the limited-overs group in the UAE and will also work at next year’s World Twenty20. – The Guardian

England Test squad: Alastair Cook (c), Alex Hales, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Mark Wood, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Steven Finn, Adil Rashid, Zafar Ansari, James Taylor, Liam Plunkett.