England call up spin prodigy Rehan Ahmed, 18, to cover for injured Moeen Ali

England could throw the youngest cricketer into an Ashes battle since the earliest days of the oldest rivalry in sport after calling up Rehan Ahmed for the second Test on Friday.

Not since Tom Garrett played in the first two Ashes matches between the sides in Melbourne in 1877 has an 18-year-old man featured in the biggest series of them all.

Now Ahmed has the chance of making more history after becoming the youngest bowler, at 18 years and 126 days, to take a five-wicket haul on Test debut when he played in England’s third and final victory against Pakistan in Karachi last winter.

Ahmed was added to the England squad for Wednesday’s second Test at Lord’s even though Moeen Ali is making good progress from the finger injury that spoiled his red-ball comeback in the narrow defeat by Australia at Edgbaston.

The Leicestershire leg-spinner will join up with the rest of what is now a 17-man squad in London on Sunday and gives England the option of replacing Moeen, should he be deemed fit or not, and joining Joe Root in what would then be a two-man spin attack.

Moeen Ali is recovering from a finger injury but faces a race against time ahead of the second test

Ahmed was overlooked by England in favour of the more experienced Moeen when Jack Leach was injured during the pre-Ashes Test against Ireland and ruled out for the rest of this summer with a stress fracture of the back.

But England have turned to the teenager now to give themselves as many options as possible in what has become a must-win Test if England are to retain a realistic chance of regaining the Ashes following their two-wicket defeat in Birmingham.

Moeen bowled 33 overs in the first innings at Edgbaston in his first red-ball match for almost two years, taking the wickets of Travis Head and Cameron Green.

But the extra workload led to a blister and cut on his index finger of his right hand and he struggled while bowling 14 overs in the second innings for the wicket of Head.

That meant Root had to step up and produced one of his best spells of off-spin for England, even though he finished with just the wicket of Alex Carey before Australia finally went on the attack against him and won deep into the final hour of the last day.

England coach Brendon McCullum insisted afterwards he was happy with Moeen’s impact and input and said he would definitely play at Lord’s if fit.

That led to the suggestion that England would not call up anyone as cover after all, but they decided yesterday to add the exciting option of Ahmed to their armoury ahead of the only other realistic candidates in Surrey’s Will Jacks and Hampshire’s Liam Dawson.