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LONDON: Jos Buttler will return as white-ball captain for England’s tour of the West Indies starting later this month after a long injury lay-off, selectors announced on Wednesday.
The 14-man squad for three One-day Internationals and five Twenty20 Internationals in Antigua, Barbados and St Lucia features three uncapped players.
Buttler missed England’s recent T20 and ODI series against Australia as he recovered from a calf injury.
England drew the T20 series 1-1 and lost the ODI series 3-2 to the 50-over world champions.
Buttler, part of England’s 2019 World Cup-winning team, is one of the most destructive batters in the game in white-ball formats.
But he has not played since the T20 World Cup in the US and West Indies in June, where England failed to retain their trophy. Yorkshire leg-spinner Jafer Chohan earns his first England call-up, while John Turner and Dan Mousley are the other uncapped players.
Chohan, 22, said selection “feels like an absolute dream”.
“My skill set is a very unique one and a bit different from what England has had before,” he said. “I feel very confident in my game and I like to express myself as a person with how I bowl and I think that works to my strength.”
The squad will be supplemented with two players from the Test squad in Pakistan, with England starting a three-match series in Multan next week.
A decision on who will jet to the Caribbean will be made after selection for the third Test in Rawalpindi, which begins on October 24.
Harry Brook stood in as England skipper for the Australia ODI series, topping the scoring charts with 312 runs in five innings at an average of 78.
England’s white-ball tour starts with the first ODI at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.
The T20 series begins in Barbados on Nov 9 and ends in St Lucia on Nov 17.
Squad: Jos Buttler (captain), Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell, Jafer Chohan, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, John Turner.
Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2024
