England Announce Test And ODI Squad For Windies Series

England, on Monday, announced their Test and ODI squad for the away series against Windies early next year, leaving out Ollie Pope from the Tests while retaining Joe Denly.

Neither Pope nor Denly played a single game during England’s historic 3-0 whitewash in Sri Lanka in November. Pope, in fact, had joined the England Lions camp after just one Test. Pope, who made his debut during the home series against India this year, fell down the pecking order after Ben Foakes’ impressive show in the island nation. Foakes starred with the bat for the visitors, scoring 277 after being drafted into the team following an ankle injury to regular wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow.

England, meanwhile, have rewarded the players for their triumphant in Sri Lanka by naming the same squad for the tour of Caribbeans. Ben Stokes has also made it to the squad who was recently fined and was handed a backdated eight-match ban by the Cricket Discipline Commission for a fight outside a Bristol nightclub in September 2017. Stokes has already served the ban.

Alex Hales, who too was banned for six matches following the same incident, had been named in the 15-man.

“Ben is obviously in all England formats and is one of our leading cricketers in this country,” national selector Ed Smith said.

“Alex has been a central part of the white-ball team for a number of years. He’s currently missed out on selection at times but when he’s got his opportunities, he’s taken them.

“So nothing has changed. They are available for selection, they have been selected and that’s the situation – that’s what is appropriate for me to consider as a selector. They’ve been through the various processes, they have made their statements, the ECB has made its statement.

“That has now passed and we return to the job at hand which is to select the best possible squads for England,” added Smith.

England have recalled allrounder David Willey after he missed the series in Sri Lanka owing to a back injury.  Sam Curran and Olly Stone and all-rounder Liam Dawson, however, have found themselves dropped from the 50-over side.

England Test squad:

Joe Root (capt), Moeen Ali, Jimmy Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Ben Foakes, Keaton Jennings, Jack Leach, Adil Rashid, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes

England ODI squad:

Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Joe Denly, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood