England announce squad for ODI series against Pakistan; Ben Stokes, Mark Wood recalled
Durham duo of Mark Wood and Ben Stokes have both been recalled by England for the ODI series against Pakistan after successfully recovering from injury. James Vince has been dropped while his Hampshire teammate Liam Dawson has been given an ODI call-up.
Despite suffering a chipped bone in his finger, England’s limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler, who has a fractured thumb have been included and are both expected to start the series.
Stokes, who was ruled out midway through the Pakistan Test series with a calf injury has recovered while Wood’s inclusion is the first time he has been part of the squad since his injury during the UAE tour last year. The latter will replace Steven Finn, who injured his hamstring during the final Test at The Oval.
National selector James Whitaker said: “Ben’s made really significant progress over the last three weeks and our medical team are pleased. He's progressing nicely towards bowling over the next week or so, and while we hope that initially he might just play as a batter he will lead into the series as an allrounder eventually.”
"He's worked really hard on his rehab and it's given everyone a lot of confidence. To have him around again will be a huge bonus for Eoin Morgan and his team,” he added.
On the return of Wood, Whitaker said it was all down to his progression. “Mark Wood has had a couple of operations, and with his hard work and advice from our medical team he's now able to take part in this series. Just over the last month he's progressed very well and we're very happy for him. We got him back into the Lions initially, he'd just played a couple of games for Durham before, and he played really well for the Lions and he's continued that form since.”
Dawson, who picked up 3/27 against Sri Lanka on his T20I debut will provide a third spin option after Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.
"He came into the squad for that one-off game and really impressed," Whitaker said. "He'd previously impressed the coaches on the Performance Programme in the winter, and over the last two years he's been very consistent for Hampshire. So it's good for him and I'm really pleased he might get a go.”
David Malan and Northamptonshire’s Liam Duckett , who both impressed for the England Lions in the triangular series against Pakistan A and Sri Lanka and Sam Billings, didn’t feature but the latter two are expected to feature in the T20 squad that will be named later this month.
"Players like Ben Duckett, Sam Billings and Dawid Malan have all been performing very well in the Lions - and James Vince, although he's not in this squad, remains in our plans. So there's three or four players there pushing for batting spots - I think that's incredibly healthy for English cricket," Whitaker said. "We've had a lot of confidence come out of our one-day team over the last 18 months, and this selection just emphasises how well they've done.”
England’s ODI squad: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Liam Dawson, Chris Jordan, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood