England have named a full strength 16 man T20 squad to take on India across the five match series that follows the Tests in March.
Skipper Eoin Morgan is hellbent on becoming the first side to hold both T20 and 50-over versions of the World Cup at the same time and he has been given every player he wanted for this series.
It makes sense to make the most of it, since the T20 World Cup will be played in India, albeit at a variety of venues and not just in Ahmedabad where all these games are taking place.
"This is a very strong T20 side and it is a great chance for Eoin to use the conditions and build for the T20 World Cup in October," said National Selector Ed Smith.
"There were long periods last summer when Eoin did not get access to his strongest team, and yet we still managed to win at that level of 70 percent
"So this is an opportunity to build for a very exciting World Cup and there may be times in the future where players will miss matches in this format."
Alongside a very much tried and trusted group of players, there is room for Lancashire's Liam Livingstone after the batting all rounder enjoyed a strong big bash tournament along with several other England hopefuls.
But there is still no room for Alex Hales, who must hope that the odd visit to an England training day in the summer will be enough to persuade Morgan to trust him once more.
““It's coming up for two years so maybe in the English summer," added Smith. "We're always looking at ways to consider getting players who aren't currently in the actual squad to come along to training days, perhaps in the run-up to a series as we look to extend and expand our squad and the relationships within.
“We might look at something like that in the summer. We're very aware of everything players do in franchise cricket around the world. I think that is something we will discuss and look at moving forward with what's best for England cricket."
England Men’s IT20 Squad:
Eoin Morgan (Middlesex) (captain), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Jonathan Bairstow (Yorkshire), Sam Billings (Kent), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Sam Curran (Surrey), Tom Curran (Surrey), Chris Jordan (Sussex), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Dawid Malan (Yorkshire), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Jason Roy (Surrey), Ben Stokes (Durham), Reece Topley (Surrey), Mark Wood (Durham).
Reserves:
Jake Ball (Nottinghamshire), Matt Parkinson (Lancashire)
