England include Jordan Cox and Rehan Ahmed for West Indies tour, Cox to head home during last Pakistan Test
England men's team will release two players from their Test squad for the Pakistan series -- wicketkeeper batter Jordan Cox on Thursday (October 24) and spinner Rehan Ahmed after the ongoing third Test at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium ends.
They have been included in the squad for the white-ball tour of the West Indies, which will begin on October 31. England will play three ODIs till November 6 followed by five T20Is between November 10 and 18 in Antigua, Barbados and St. Lucia.
"Jordan will leave at the end of today's play and head home to the UK, before joining our white-ball tour of the Caribbean," England said in a statement on social media. "Rehan will also join the white-ball squad at the end of this Test match."
Rehan is part of the team's 11 in Rawalpindi. The series is tied 1-1 and Pakistan have prepared a rank-turner to help their spinners in the must-win decider.
Cox to bolster wicketkeeping department in Jos Buttler's absence
Rehan will likely miss the first ODI against the Windies and might only feature in the 11s from the T20Is. Cox, meanwhile, has a good chance to feature in both rubbers as skipper Jos Buttler has been ruled out of the ODIs after his return from his calf injury got postponed; he's now expected to return for the T20Is.
Liam Livingstone will captain the ODI team in his absence.
England squad for West Indies ODIs and T20Is: Jos Buttler (captain, T20Is only), Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell, Jafer Chohan, Jordan Cox, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone (ODI captain), Saqib Mahmood, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, John Turner.
Meanwhile, in Rawalpindi, England started well in the first session, scoring 77 runs in the first 20 overs, bowled exclusively by spinners Sajid Khan and Noman Ali. The two veteran tweakers also managed to pick a wicket each of Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley respectively.