Rob Key and Luke Wright, England’s managing director and selector, returned to India this week ahead of their final group game in Kolkata. They picked the squads for this tour before the Pakistan match in conjunction with Buttler and head coach Matthew Mott who, like Buttler, has been backed to turn England’s fortunes around.
After the Caribbean tour, England will not play another ODI until September 2024 and have not made final decisions of the 50-over futures of several senior players. “I don’t think I’m ever really getting to the point where you’re going to absolutely say that people are done completely,” Key said.
Several multi-format players have been given a break before the Test tour of India early next year, and England always anticipated making a substantial number of changes for this tour. “We knew, regardless of what happened in this World Cup, that the Champions Trophy was two years away,” Key said. “You always thought, ‘well, there’s going to be a different way to go.'”
England have picked a new generation of seamers in their ODI squad. “To have a great era of English cricket, so much is going to depend on those bowlers coming through,” Key said, citing Atkinson, Tongue, Carse, Turner and Matthew Potts, who does not feature in either squad. “We’ve taken a bet that they’re the ones that we’re going to invest in.”
Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes, Reece Topley and Moeen are all part of the T20I squad, but Malan has been dropped. He was England’s top-scorer at this World Cup but his T20I numbers have dipped – he averages 29.68 with a strike rate of 124.38 in the last 18 months – and he was dropped by his Hundred team, Trent Rockets, earlier this year.
“His form over the last year, that’s the reason why he’s not there,” Key explained. “If you told me, 100 percent, that Dawid Malan is not going to play in the T20 World Cup, I’d say, ‘absolutely not.’ He’s got every opportunity to get there: he’s just got to show us he can get back to [being] the player he was.”
ODI squad: Jos Buttler (captain), Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Ben Duckett, Tom Hartley, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Ollie Pope, Phil Salt, Josh Tongue, John Turner
T20I squad: Jos Buttler (captain), Rehan Ahmed, Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Tymal Mills, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Josh Tongue, Reece Topley, John Turner, Chris Woakes
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98