England squad for T20 World Cup 2024 announced, Jofra Archer back

The English Cricket Board (ECB) has announced their 15-man squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies, starting in June.

England will walk into the tournament as the reigning champions of the first-ever 20-team T20 World Cup. The Three Lions will be led by Jos Buttler, who captained the English team to their 2nd ICC T20 WC title during the 2022 edition, held in Australia.

Also Read: South Africa T20 World Cup Squad 2024 announced, Aiden Markram named captain

How good is England looking for a title defense?

There will be high hopes from the English contigent as they have played some exciting white-ball cricket of late. The team improved drastically since the 2019 Cricket World Cup triumph which was followed by the T20 WC triumph.

However, when the time had come for them to defend the 50-over World Cup in the 2023 edition in India, England had gone inside a shell. Led by Jos Buttler, the Three Lions had finished below the likes of Pakistan and Afghanistan at the 7th spot and had also won only 3 of their 9 league games.

The best thing that happened for England in the tournament was that they were able to finish in the top 7. That itself had become an achievement because the top 7 teams from the points table received automatic qualification for the next edition of ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Pakistan.

Hopes and spirits will be high for England, also for the fact that some of their key players like Jos Buttler, Phil Salt, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Reece Topley, Will Jacks and Liam Livingstone are in a tremendous form in IPL 2024. While Buttler and Salt have been impressive as RR and KKR openers, Bairstow found his rhythm recently at the Eden Gardens stadium where he smacked his 2nd IPL century.

Moeen Ali, Reece Topley and Livingstone have also looked good whereas Will Jacks recently scored a 100 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru off just 41 balls. 2022 T20 World Cup's man of the tournament Sam Curran is leading the Punjab Kings.

A big boost for England is the return of right-arm pacer Jofra Archer following a long-term injury which had ruled him out of the CWC 2023 and IPL 2024 as well. Archer is expected to play a key role for the English team in USA and West Indies and form a lethal duo with Mark Wood, who skipped the IPL this year to manage his workload.

Elsewhere, leg-spinner Adil Rashid and all-rounder Chris Jordan have been included. Both of them were core players during England's 2022 T20 WC win. Harry Brook, who missed England's Test match series tour of India earlier this year and also skipper IPL 2024 for the death of his Grandmother, has also been included. Brook is currently playing county cricket for Yorkshire.

Test opener Ben Duckett and left-arm off-spinner Tom Hartley, who impressed with his finger spin during the Indian tour, are also a part of the provisional squad. The same squad will also take on Pakistan in a 4-match T20I series next month, starting from May 22 onwards.

England's squad for the T20 World Cup 2024 (Provisional)

Jos Buttler (C), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Ben Duckett, Tom Hartley, Will Jacks, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Reece Topley and Mark Wood.