England will announce their provisional 15-man squad for this summer’s Twenty20 World Cup on Tuesday as the defending champions look to avoid a repeat of their catastrophic 50-over campaign in India last year.
Both captain Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott, the coach, will head into the tournament in the Caribbean and United States under pressure after England’s dismal group-stage exit at the ODI World Cup in the autumn.
It means there will be extra scrutiny on the 15 men picked this week, with the selectors keen to avoid the mixed messages and confusion over the 50-over squad that resulted when Harry Brook was originally left out of the party for that tournament in India.
Brook’s sensational late summer form saw him included at the last minute ahead of 2019 World Cup winner Jason Roy, who was ruthlessly dropped.
This time England will, barring injuries, want to stick with their original selection, even though they do not have to submit their final squad until 25 May. That date comes midway through the home T20 series against Pakistan that will act as England’s only warm-up ahead of the main event.
The squad then needs to be spot on, with enough strength in depth and flexibility to cover every eventuality. That might mean a couple of surprise calls, even though the bulk of the 15 picks itself.
Of those who won this tournament in Australia in 2022, Alex Hales and David Willey have retired from international cricket, Ben Stokes has made himself unavailable as he gears up for the Test summer and Dawid Malan has dropped out of contention.
There are three categories of players in the mix to make the squad – those who are certain to be on the plane, the maybes and then the wildcard options.
i takes you through all the potential possibilities before picking what we think will be the squad England go with ahead of their opening match of the tournament against Scotland in Barbados on 4 June. Australia, Oman and Namibia are England’s other group opponents.
It’s likely that 12 of the prospective 15 players fall into this category. Of the frontline batters, Buttler, Phil Salt and Brook are all dead certainties for the team let alone the squad. Of the all-rounders, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran and Chris Woakes look set in stone.
Three bowlers also look certain of their inclusion in leg-spinner Adil Rashid, Mark Wood and Reece Topley, while Jofra Archer is expected to make the provisional squad before he gets the chance to prove his fitness in the series against Pakistan following a long-standing injury absence.
This is where it starts to get tricky. Before he stormed back into form with a 45-ball hundred in the Indian Premier League on Friday, Jonny Bairstow was a definite maybe. But a champagne supernova of an innings on his return to the Punjab Kings team saw the recently dropped Yorkshireman anchor the highest-ever chase in the history of T20 cricket – his electrifying 108 helping Punjab hunt down 262 against Salt’s Kolkata Knight Riders. Bairstow will surely now make the squad and probably gets into the XI if his form holds up.
Ben Duckett has been a reserve batter in England’s recent T20 squads and looks likely to fulfil that role again. In terms of all-rounders, England were keen on Jamie Overton, whose franchise form over the winter drew the eye of selectors. Yet the 30-year-old, who was seen as a good alternative to Stokes, has suffered a back injury and England are waiting to see if it rules him out of the tournament.
If he doesn’t make it, Brydon Carse, a replacement at the ODI World Cup in India and who played in the New Zealand T20 series before that, is another option. Chris Jordan, a solid six hitter and experienced death bowler, could also come back into contention at the age of 35.
Given Archer’s injury history, Tymal Mills and Gus Atkinson might also be fighting for one spare spot as out-and-out quick bowling cover. There’s also uncertainty over the cover for spin bowling, with leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed and Tom Hartley the contenders. It’s felt at this stage that Hartley, who impressed in his debut Test series in India recently, has the edge with his left-arm spin.
Given the depth of talent in and around the current set-up there’s little scope for a real bolter to emerge. Overton was one and if he’s not fit another might be Essex’s Paul Walter.
The 29-year-old, a powerful middle-order batter who bowls left-arm seam, has been a standout for Essex in the Blast for years but has also excelled in the Hundred over the past two summers alongside Buttler at Manchester Originals.
He became a cult hero in Australia’s Big Bash over the winter, too, named in the tournament’s team of the year after helping Brisbane Heat to the title.
