Windies vs England: Visitors announce squad for the T20I series

Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler will be rested for England’s T20 series against Windies next month, and as their replacement, Sam Billings and Dawid Malan have been called up.  Both the replacements will be making a comeback for the first time since last year’s tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Both Buttler and Stokes, who play an integral role for England in all formats, will return home after the fifth and final ODI against Windies on March 2 in St Lucia. They face a hectic 2019 schedules which include the IPL, the World Cup and the Ashes.

After scoring 78 on his T20 international debut against South Africa in Cardiff in June 2017, Malan struck three fifties in four innings during the T20 tri-series in Australia and New Zealand last February. Billings, whose primary role is to keep wickets, has played 18 T20 international, scoring just one fifty and averaging 13.06 with the bat. Another England player who will be unavailable for the series is Jason Roy, who has decided to be with his family to attend the birth of his first child.

IPL has not be prioritised over national duty

Ed Smith the national selector, made it clear that the decision to rest Stokes and Buttler should not be seen as a case of prioritising franchise cricket over national duty. “I have not favoured franchise cricket over international cricket,” Smith said. “The contracts that Jos and Ben had with their franchises pre-date my involvement. There were a set of obligations in place and, with a busy year coming up, I’ve accepted the strong recommendations of the head coach to rest these guys now.”

England T20 squad:

Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Tom Curran, Joe Denly, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, David Willey, Mark Wood

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