shares
Mark Wood’s will add a cutting edge to England’s pace attack © AFP
Durham fast bowler Mark Wood has been included in England’s squads for the Champions Trophy, the three-match series against South Africa and the two ODIs against Ireland early next month.
Wood has returned to action this season following further ankle surgery which kept him out of England action over the last six months. He is viewed as a crucial element of England’s white-ball plans to provide a cutting edge to the pace attack. Injury has restricted him to 11 ODIs since his debut in 2015 but he bowled with eye-catching pace against Pakistan last year before requiring further surgery.
Steven Finn misses out on the Champions Trophy with Nottinghamshire’s Jake Ball preferred while left-armer David Willey returns having missed the West Indies in March due to injury.
Ball has taken 12 wickets in five ODIs which included 5 for 51 on debut against Bangladesh in Dhaka and squeezes out Finn who took four wickets in the three matches against West Indies in what were his first ODIs in 18 months.
Finn is, though, included in a 14-man squad for the two matches against Ireland as is Ben Duckett who made his England debut in Bangladesh last year. Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Jos Buttler are unavailable for those games having been allowed to remain at the IPL. Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy and Sam Billings will return from India for the matches.
“We have made encouraging progress over the past 18 months in white ball cricket and the squads selected reflect consistency and give options across all disciplines,” James Whitaker, the national selector, said. “It is pleasing that Mark Wood and David Willey have returned to full fitness. They add variety and quality to our bowling strengths and David’s ability as an attacking batsman is also an important element for us.”
The settled nature of England’s one-day side means there is no room for a number of promising players around the county scene. There had been much talk about Lancashire’s Liam Livingstone, who impressed for the Lions over the winter and made 168 in the recent round of County Championship matches, but he will have to wait his turn. The same applies to Tim Curran who was added to England’s squad in West Indies.
The squad for the Champions Trophy will also play the one-day series against South Africa at the end of May.
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