Injured Chris Jordan misses England's ODI squad to face Ireland
Sam Billings, David Willey return to white-ball reckoning as England name behind-closed-doors training squad
ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jul-2020Chris Jordan will miss England’s ODI series against Ireland after suffering an arm injury.Jordan was among three players in an extended training group who were not considered for England’s 24-man training squad named on Thursday due to injury. The three day-night matches are to be played against Ireland behind closed doors at Southampton’s Ageas Bowl on July 30, August 1 and August 4.Pat Brown, who had overcome a back injury suffered while training with Melbourne Stars ahead of the BBL was also left out with another back issue, along with Dawid Malan, who has not recovered from a calf injury.Jordan posted on Instagram shortly after the squad was announced, with a picture of his arm in a sling saying he had recently had surgery on it.
A number of players are set to return to white-ball action for England after time on the sidelines, including Sam Billings and David Willey.Billings, who had any hope of joining England’s victorious World Cup campaign dashed by a dislocated shoulder at the start of the 2019 domestic season, endured a disappointing T20 series in New Zealand at the end of last year and missed the subsequent tour of South Africa.ALSO READ: ‘I don’t want to be pigeonholed as a white-ball player’ – BillingsWilley, who was heartbroken to have been omitted from England’s World Cup squad last year after playing in the warm-up series against Pakistan immediately before the tournament, has not played a white-ball match for his country since.Also returning are Liam Dawson, Liam Livingstone, James Vince, Ben Duckett and Reece Topley.The group will enter a closed training bubble at the Ageas Bowl on July 16 and play two intra-squad warm-up matches on July 21 and 24 before a final squad is named.England assistant coach Paul Collingwood will assume the head coach role for the three-match series while Chris Silverwood guides the Test squad. Collingwood will be supported by batting coach Marcus Trescothick, who has been seconded from Somerset.Ed Smith, the national selector, said that even with a number of multi-format players unavailable due to Test commitments, the white-ball group contained plenty of depth.”With the captain, coach, they’ve got to make the call they believe in to win the game too whilst also having an eye on the future clearly, and the upcoming challenges we’ve got in white-ball cricket with the T20 World Cups and then obviously building for a new cycle in the 50-over World Cup as well,” Smith told Sky Sports.”What we had before the World Cup that obviously England just won in 2019, was a situation where we had more players who we we wanted to pick than we could put in the squad, and that’s what you want. You want to create over-supply, and you want to give yourself those headaches.”England’s behind-closed-doors training squad for the ODI series against Ireland•ESPNcricinfo Ltd
Saqib Mahmood presents an interesting case. Named as a reserve for the Test squad currently at the Ageas Bowl for the first of three fixtures with West Indies, Mahmood was also named in the ODI squad.Smith told the BBC’s TMS programme that Mahmood would stay in Southampton and link up with the white-ball squad provided Olly Stone had recovered sufficiently from a hamstring problem to travel to Manchester for the second and third Tests.Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali, who were left out of the Test squad, were likely to remain part of the white-ball set-up this summer after being named in the squad preparing to face Ireland, subject to medical protocols. Moeen recently made himself available for Test selection again after opting out last winter, having lost his central contract and citing a desire for rest.Smith said only if health and safety guidelines aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19 were relaxed, would there be any possible movement of players between Test and limited-overs training bubbles.”The point about Moeen is that we’re really pleased he’s available for all formats for England,” Smith told TMS. “Moeen is a trusted and valued England cricketer, he’s had some really good moments across all formats in an England shirt. He’s now available for Test cricket. He came here, he did his prep, worked hard and that was all really good to see.”As it turned out, we retained consistency of selection and Dom Bess is selected in the 13 and in the XI. He finished the winter very strongly in those three consecutive victories on the road in South Africa in that 3-1 series win and that all makes perfect sense.”