Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali’s futures are in doubt after England took drastic steps to move on from their ‘golden generation’ by axing the pair from their white-ball squads.
England reacted to their dismal 50-over World Cup title defence last year and disappointing T20 World Cup campaign in June by sacking Matthew Mott, with Marcus Trescothick hoping to press home his claims to be the new coach with a series of notable selections. After the three-match T20 series against Australia next month, England will then take on the same opponents in five ODIs.
Joe Root has also been omitted from the ODI squad but England have clarified he has been rested rather than dropped. In Root’s absence, Ben Duckett has the chance to press his claims to being England’s long-term ODI No 3.
Moeen, the white-ball vice-captain, is now 37 and with spin bowling all-rounders Jacob Bethell and Dan Mousley winning their maiden international call-ups, he has been dropped. Bairstow, who turns 35 next month, has been discarded after poor tournaments in last year’s ODI World Cup and this year’s T20 World Cup. The Yorkshireman was dropped by England’s Test team earlier this year.
Fresh from winning his maiden Test call-up, left-arm quick Josh Hull is also selected in both the ODI and T20 squad for the first time. There are a series of notable selections among the bowlers. Alongside the 20-year-old Hull, the uncapped John Turner is also in both squads, as is the recalled Saqib Mahmood, who was player of the match in the Hundred final after two injury-ruined years.
Brydon Carse is also selected in both squads. The Durham fast bowler, who has played 14 ODIs and three T20Is, has recently completed a three-month suspension for historical breaches of betting rules.
Essex batsman Jordan Cox, who is currently with the Test squad, is one of five uncapped men in the T20 squad, though he does not make the cut for the ODIs.
Other notable omissions are spin pair Rehan Ahmed and Tom Hartley, with both struggling this season. Sam Curran, player of the tournament in the Hundred, retains his T20 spot but is left out of the ODI squad.
Duckett and Jamie Smith are only named in the ODI squad, to allow the pair to have a break after the end of the Test series against Sri Lanka. The first T20 against Australia begins on September 11, just one day after the final Test. The three T20s are followed by five ODIs.
Jofra Archer is picked in both squads, as he continues his return from injury. Elsewhere, Liam Livingstone has been dropped from the ODI squad but retains his berth in the T20 squad.
T20 Squad
Jos Buttler (Lancashire, capt), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Jacob Bethell (Warwickshire), Brydon Carse (Durham), Jordan Cox (Essex), Sam Curran (Surrey), Josh Hull (Leicestershire), Will Jacks (Surrey), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Dan Mousley (Warwickshire), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Phil Salt (Lancashire), Reece Topley (Surrey), John Turner (Hampshire).
ODI Squad
Jos Buttler (Lancashire, capt), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Gus Atkinson (Surrey), Jacob Bethell (Warwickshire), Harry Brook (Yorkshire), Brydon Carse (Durham), Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire), Josh Hull (Leicestershire), Will Jacks (Surrey), Matthew Potts (Durham), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Phil Salt (Lancashire), Jamie Smith (Surrey), Reece Topley (Surrey), John Turner (Hampshire).
England rip up the script in bold new era by taking inspiration from Test team
Over the last two years, there has been a curious paradox in England’s selections. In Test cricket, England have embraced risk at every turn. Yet in the white-ball game – the formats designed for aggression – selections have veered towards the timid. Given the choice between youth and experience, England have continually plumped for experience.
No longer.
England’s squad to meet Australia next month, in three Twenty20 internationals and five one-day internationals, is infused with boldness. One-third of the 15 players picked in the T20 squad are uncapped.
From 2016-22, England enjoyed the best era of white-ball cricket in their history. In five global events in this period, they reached the semi-final every time, got to three finals and won two World Cups, the 2019 ODI World Cup and 2022 T20 World Cup.
This extraordinary era was underpinned by a golden generation of talent. Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood were all born from 1989-91; each won at least one World Cup, with Buttler, Stokes, Woakes and Wood winning two. Of this octet of players, now only Buttler, the captain, remains. While Root could return for ODIs again, and there remains a possibility that Stokes and Wood could yet reappear for another global event, England’s white-ball fortunes will now be determined by a new generation.
The suspicion is that the rejuvenation of England’s white-ball teams is at least a year late. When England were thrashed by Sri Lanka in Bangalore in the ODI World Cup last year – the defeat that effectively confirmed their elimination – the entire XI were in their 30s.
The problem with golden generations
It was a snapshot of the problem with golden generations. Their very excellence denies opportunities to those who come next, which stunts their development.
England’s solution to this quandary is effectively to skip a generation. Besides Ben Duckett, born in 1994, the new batsmen that England have picked are a decade younger than the previous generation. The fortunes of the white-ball batting in the years to come rest on Phil Salt (born 1996), Will Jacks (1998), Harry Brook (1999), Jordan Cox (2000), Jamie Smith (2000), Dan Mousley (2001) and Jacob Bethell (2003). England will hope that, in time, the class of 1998-2001 comes to emulate the feats of the 1989-91 babies.
While many of those entrusted have made an irrefutable case on the pitch – Bethell enjoying a sparkling Hundred in the role of finisher, and is a left-hander to boot – the squads are also in keeping with the theme of recent English selections.
Attributes matter more than averages. That is why the all-rounder Mousley has been picked: he showed extraordinary chutzpah to take three for three from 10 balls in a spell at the death in the Hundred, bowling 70mph off breaks, even if his batting average in 14 innings in the competition is 7.64. It is also why Josh Hull and John Turner, who spent much of the Hundred outside of their side’s first-choice XI, are included: Hull is a 6ft 7in left-armer, Turner can exceed 90mph.
While these selections are all informed by director of men’s cricket Rob Key’s adventurous instincts, the need to elevate players of high potential swiftly in the white-ball game has also never been greater. With England’s leading cricketers now not playing any domestic one-day cricket at all, because of the clash with the Hundred, it makes sense to maximise the ODI exposure of the best young players in the build-up to the 2027 ODI World Cup.
In lieu of the risk-aversion and joylessness that has characterised their white-ball cricket over the last year, England are now seeking to bring the same spirit that informs their Test team to the white-ball side. This does not bring any guarantee of a change in results. But whatever happens on the field in the next month, England will end the eight games against Australia with a far better sense of the potential of a new cohort.
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