The England selectors have announced their balanced squads for ODI and T20 vs. the formidable West Indies for the forthcoming series due to commence on June 16, 2012.
England will be hosting three One Day International series which will be followed by the only Twenty20 against the visiting Caribbeans.
The Windies are in good nick after fighting well in the five ODIs and a couple of T20s against the visiting Australians in March 2012. The hosts squared the ODI series at 2-2 as the third match played on March 20, 2012 ended in an exciting draw. The T20 series concluded in a 1-1 draw and the home side got back their confidence during their encounters against one of the top teams in the world.
The visitors have included the hard hitting Chris Gayle in their side, a player who was the highest run getter in the recently concluded Indian Premier League 2012. He thrashed 733 runs at an awesome average of 61.08, the best of unbeaten 128 with 7 fifties. Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine also excelled during the IPL 2012 and they will give a tough time to the home side.
England will be without the services of their prominent player, Kevin Pietersen who hung his boots from the shorter versions of the game. The English selectors were well aware of the capabilities of the Windies in the limited over cricket and have tried to pick up a strong side.
The national selector, Geoff Miller, was optimistic that the upcoming series will be a challenging one and hoped that England will perform well in the series. He commented,
“We are anticipating a very competitive series against West Indies and are looking to continue to build on the progress we made in limited-overs cricket earlier this year against Pakistan. Kevin Pietersen’s recent decision to retire from one-day cricket means we now start looking at other options available to us as we prepare to defend our World Twenty20 title and look towards next year’s Champions Trophy and the 2015 World Cup.”
England was beaten badly 0-3 in the Test series against Pakistan in January – February, 2012, held in the United Arab Emirates. They came back strongly in the limited over games against the Green shirts by winning the four ODI series 4-0 followed by a 2-1 triumph in the T20s.
Alastair Cook will lead the ODI side while Stuart Broad will be marshalling the troops in the T20. Ian Bell has been included in the ODIs due to the retirement of Kevin Pietersen and James Anderson. He is back in the side after he was given rest in the third Test vs. West Indies.
ODI squad
Alastair Cook (capt), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott.
The selectors have included three youngsters, Jos Buttler, Danny Briggs and Alex Hales in the T20 team and we will introduce them briefly.
Jos Buttler
Joseph Charles Buttler was born on September 8, 1990 in Taunton, Somerset, a right hand batsman and a wicketkeeper. He has played for England, Somerset 2nd XI, Somerset, England Under-19s and England Lions.
He is a brisk scorer who believes in attacking the rival bowlers rather than compromising with them and has performed well on the domestic level as well. The 21-year-old has played 7 T20s, scored 30 runs at an average of 7.50 with the best of 13. That does not reflect his true potential and there is a lot more to come from his bat.
Buttler has appeared in 53T20s on the domestic level, had scored 688 runs at an average of 21, 50, the best of unbeaten 72 with a couple of fifties.
Danny Briggs
Danny Richard Briggs was born on April 30, 1991, in Newport, Isle of Wight, a left arm spin bowler and right hand batsman. He has played for England, England Under-19s, England Lions, Berhshire, Hampshire 2nd XI and Hampshire.
He is an outstanding spin bowler who has performed well for his respective teams in a short period of time and England has high expectations from him for the future. He has appeared in 43 T20 domestic matches, held 61 wickets at an excellent average of 15.77 with the best of 5-19 runs per wicket.
Alex Hales
Alexander Daniel Hales was born on January 3, 1989, in Hillingdon, Middlesex, a right arm medium fast bowler and right hand batsman. He has played for England, England Lions, Nottinghamshire 2nd XI, Nottinghamshire and Buckinghamshire.
He is a lanky batsman who has scored consistently at the domestic level and was the highest scorer for his side Nottinghamshire in the season of 2011 while playing in the Friends Life T20.
The 23-year-old has played 4 T20s for England, scored 75 runs at an average of 25.00 with the best of unbeaten 62 runs.
T20 squad
Stuart Broad (capt), Jonny Bairstow, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Craig Kieswetter, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann.
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