Roy returns for England ODI squad against Australia
Jason Roy has been recalled by England’s one-day selectors having been dropped from the limited-overs side ahead of the ongoing Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in Australia.
The 15-man squad will play three matches against Australia in an international series that follows the World Cup Down Under.
As expected, Ben Stokes has been excluded from the side given his decision to retire from one-day cricket, citing a growing strain on his schedule of playing three international formats as well as domestic cricket.
The series comes at the back end of a very busy year for England cricket – after the three-match series England will tour Pakistan for three Tests across three cities, the first time England will have played a Test in the Asian country since 2005.
Eleven of the current wider T20 World Cup squad will remain in Australia after the conclusion of the showpiece tournament ahead of the Series beginning on 17 November.
Olly Stone will be looking to add to his four one-day appearances on the tour as the seamer has been recalled to the side having not played a 50-over match for England since 2018.
Another returnee to the side is James Vince, who has not played an ODI for over 12 months.
England begin in Adelaide before playing in Sydney two days later and in Melbourne three days after that.
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie
On the subject of Australia, their Twenty20 team stormed to a seven-wicket win against Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka yesterday at the World Cup in Perth.
Sri Lanka opener Pathum Nissanka was solid for the underdogs as he scored 40 runs of their 157-run innings – Charith Asalanka scored 38 without loss while Dhananjaya de Silva added 26 runs to the total.
In response opener David Warner fell for Australia after scoring 11 runs in the chase while a not-out Aaron Finch added 31 runs to the response.
But it was big-hitting Marcus Stoinis who made the difference for the host nation as the hometown boy walloped 59 runs off just 18 balls, hitting four fours and six sixes.
Heading into this match – largely down to their opening loss against New Zealand – Australia’s net run-rate was -4.45, it is now just -1.555.
That said, the hosts will likely need to win their remaining three matches of the Super12s – against England on Friday, Ireland and Afghanistan – if they’re going to make the final four of the competition.