England Cricket World Cup 2019 squad announcement - LIVE!
England have announced their final 15-man squad for this summer’s Cricket World Cup.
The thrilling fast bowler Jofra Archer has been drafted into England’s squad alongside Liam Dawson - who has not played international cricket this year.
Archer and Dawson come in as two of three changes to the provisional squad last month. James Vince is the third, replacing Alex Hales, who was dropped after serving a drugs ban.
David Willey and Joe Denly are the players dropped for Archer and Dawson respectively.
Left-armer Willey is particularly unfortunate to miss out, having been a regular member of England’s side for the last four years.
As soon as Archer qualified for England in March, one of England’s quicks looked likely to be a World Cup fall guy. Willey was competing most directly with Tom Curran, who had a superb series with bat and ball against Pakistan this month.
Dawson had a terrific Royal London One-Day Cup with Hampshire, scoring a century and taking 18 wickets at an economy of 4.1. He looks a more natural fit as Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid’s understudy than Denly. He is set to be withdrawn from Hampshire’s current Championship match against Nottinghamshire on the Isle of Wight and replaced by Mason Crane.
Denly was brought in after a decade in the ODI wilderness when Dawson picked up a side injury in Sri Lanka last October. He is the incumbent Test No3 so now has the opportunity to nail down an Ashes place in the County Championship with Kent.
England are favourites for the World Cup, a tournament they have never won and has not been held in this country for 20 years. They have won their last 11 ODI series of more than one match and completed a 4-0 series win over Pakistan on Sunday.
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