The young English pacer, Jofra Archer has finally managed to make a cut for himself in the English World Cup squad at the 11th hour. On Tuesday, the final squad for the mega event was announced and surprisingly, David Willey has been replaced by Archer in comparison to the provisional squad.
It seems that Archer’s extra pace and X-factor ability has been the crucial reason behind, Willey missing the chance as the other fast bowlers in the squad are Tom Curran, Mark Wood, and Liam Plunkett. The national selector Ed Smith named the Sussex’s pacer among the final 15, despite him only becoming available last month.
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England is already entering the tournament as favorites and Archer’s inclusion is still an unexpected bonus for the hosts. On the other hand, Willey has been quite unlucky as his ability to swing the ball from the word go could’ve been a bonus as well. During the Caribbean tour, Willey had said: “Whether someone should just walk in at the drop of a hat because they’re available, whether that’s the right thing I don’t know.”
Apart from Archer, Liam Dawson has replaced Joe Denly to capture the reserve spinner slot as back up to Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid. James Vince has also been included as a replacement of Alex Hales.
England has been preparing for this World Cup from the last four years and still, they are taking two players in Archer and Dawson into the tournament, who have negligible experience of international cricket. Skipper Eoin Morgan has long insisted that England needed to arrive at the tournament as one of the best teams in the world and with as much experience as possible, and while the first choice batting certainly ticks those boxes, there is no doubt that both Archer and Dawson could have done with a few more matches under their belts.
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England 15-man ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Final Squad
Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
