England name 14-man squad for ODI series with Ireland

The three matches will take place at the Ageas Bowl in a bio-secure environment

Left-armers David Willey and Reece Topley have earned recalls to England’s ODI squad as part of a 14-man squad for the ODI series against Ireland at the Ageas Bowl starting on Thursday.

Like the ongoing Test series against West Indies, the three matches will take place at the Ageas Bowl in a bio-secure environment.

As such, the squad only features eight players who were part of England’s World Cup winning 15 from last summer. Five are currently involved in the third Test at Emirates Old Trafford. Joe Denly, who played the first Test and was part of the bubble in Manchester, is also in the 50-over squad after joining the bubble in Southampton two days ago.

Willey’s return comes after a year away from the set-up which started with the disappointment of missing the cut for the World Cup as England brought in Jofra Archer following his qualification in March 2019. Though he feared his international career may be over, he now has the chance to add to his 46 ODI caps in which he has taken 52 wickets.

For Topley, his presence is off the back of a much bigger absence of four years through injury. A succession of stress fractures saw the highly-regarded left-armer drop out of recognition, but he was able to build himself back up after release from Hampshire with a spell at Sussex where he was their leading wicket-taker in the 2019 T20 Blast. At the end of last summer he signed a white ball contract with Surrey.

James Taylor, the England selector who has been watching the team’s preparations at the Ageas Bowl, said:

“We are developing excellent strength in depth in white-ball cricket. Even though a number of Test players are unavailable, there is great competition for places, as we have seen during the intra-squad matches and the England Lions warm-up match.

“There are a number of players who’ll feel unlucky not to have made the final squad and that says a lot about how many players we currently have pushing hard for selection at the highest level.

“These ODIs against Ireland are an opportunity to continue the exciting evolution of the ODI side, while also looking towards the T20 World Cup in 2021.

“In this challenging season, everyone at England appreciates the hard work and dedication of the county coaches and support staff who have helped these players to get ready for competitive cricket.”

The three players on standby are Richard Gleeson (Lancashire), Lewis Gregory (Somerset) and Liam Livingstone (Lancashire). That there are notable omissions like Sam Hain who averages 59.78 in List A cricket with 10 hundreds and Phil Salt, who thumped a 58-ball 100 not out against Ireland as the England Lions chased a target of 297 in 35 overs on Sunday, shows the scale of white-ball batting depth in English cricket.

The series will see the launch of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League. Introduced to bring context to ODI cricket, the Super League will determine qualification for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 with the top seven teams automatically booking their spot at the event in India.

Full squad

Eoin Morgan (Middlesex) Captain, Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Tom Banton (Somerset), Sam Billings (Kent), Tom Curran (Surrey), Liam Dawson (Hampshire), Joe Denly (Kent), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Jason Roy (Surrey), Reece Topley (Surrey), James Vince (Hampshire), David Willey (Yorkshire)