SOUTHAMPTON: Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow were included in a 24-man England training squad named on Thursday for the three-match One-day International home series against Ireland.

Wicket-keeper/batsman Bairstow and off-spinning all-rounder Mooen were left out of the squad for the first Test against the West Indies, taking place in Southampton this week.

But with England still planning to complete a full programme in a season truncated by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) shutdown, it has long been accepted they will have to field separate Test and one-day squads.

The third ODI at Southampton, the venue for all three Ireland matches, is set to take place on Aug 4 — the day before England start the first of a three-Test series against Pakistan at Old Trafford in Manchester.

That means England’s white-ball team are set to be without several members of the team that beat New Zealand in last year’s World Cup final including Test captain Joe Root and Ben Stokes.

“Even with several multi-format players unavailable for the Ireland ODIs due to their Test commitments, there is real depth to England’s white-ball playing talent,” said national selector Ed Smith.

England assistant coach Paul Collingwood, the captain of the England side that won the 2010 World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, will be the head coach for the series, with former England opener Marcus Trescothick in his backroom staff.

The England one-day side will go into an on-site training camp at the Ageas Bowl on July 16, playing two intra-squad warm-up matches before the selectors pick a final squad.

The series, being played behind closed doors, starts on July 30, with subsequent matches on Aug 1 and 4.

England also hope to play three Twenty20 Internationals against Pakistan in August and September, with three T20s and three ODIs against Australia originally scheduled for July still to be re-arranged.

Training squad: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Sam Billings, Henry Brookes, Brydon Carse, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Ben Duckett, Laurie Evans, Richard Gleeson, Lewis Gregory, Sam Hain, Tom Helm, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Matt Parkinson, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, James Vince, David Willey.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2020