In his absence, the Test team's pace bowling department was revolutionized. James Anderson and Stuart Broad have retired and Ollie Robinson has been dropped, making way for the likes of Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Brydon Carse, Olly Stone and Josh Hull.
“It just shows the opportunities you can get as a young fast bowler,” Tongue added.
“I know when I’m fit and firing, I’m a good bowler. I showed that last year. My main focus now is to get as fit as possible, get back to bowling and see what happens.”
Tongue's return is a further boost for England, who have been hit by a series of fast bowling injuries.
Jamie Overton and Saqib Mahmood, both struggling with back injuries, bowled on the white-ball tour of West Indies. Hull, who made his Test debut against Sri Lanka but missed the tour of Pakistan with a quadriceps injury, is back in training and will join the Lions in South Africa.
Dillon Pennington, who was part of the England squad at the start of the summer but has been out since August with a hamstring injury, is also in the Lions squad.
The Lions, led for the first time by new head coach Andrew Flintoff, are in South Africa for almost a month, spending time in white-ball training, sharing training sessions with the Young Lions squad and then playing a four-day match against South Africa A .
The tour of Australia in the new year will include three red-ball games and will be part of the build-up to the Ashes series at the end of 2025. In addition to Tongue, spinners Shoaib Bashir and Rehan Ahmed will also be part of the Lions squad to familiarize themselves with the Australian conditions.
The England men's and women's national teams leave the UK on Saturday for their tours of New Zealand and South Africa respectively.
