England name new 18-man ODI squad following COVID catastrophe

England have been forced to name a new 18-man squad for the upcoming ODI series against Pakistan after three players and four members of staff returned positive tests.

The whole of the original camp must now isolate following the seven positive cases, with the ECB moving swiftly to organise an updated squad.

Ben Stokes returns from an injury lay-off to captain the squad following a taste of competitive action in the T20 Blast and County Championship with Durham.

Stokes had been recently recovering from a broken finger that was suffered whilst playing for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL.

Nine uncapped players have been named in the squad to face Babar Azam’s side.

Brydon Carse, Will Jacks, Tom Helm, David Payne, Phil Salt and John Simpson are amongst the uncapped names, whilst Zak Crawley, Dan Lawrence and Lewis Gregory will be looking to make their ODI debuts having already represented England in other formats.

Jake Ball, Danny Briggs, Ben Duckett, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Matt Parkinson and James Vince also make returns to the ODI set-up.

However, the same cannot be said for Alex Hales whose England chances appear as slim as ever after being overlooked once again.

Hales has not played for England since 2019, with Eoin Morgan having gone on record to state that the Nottinghamshire batsman “needs to build trust” if he is to return to the team.

Chris Silverwood, who was initially set to miss the series, will also return to coach the new squad.

An ECB statement confirmed that “The remaining members of the party have been deemed close contacts and will also isolate.”

Tom Harrison, ECB Chief Executive Officer also added that “We made a strategic choice to try to adapt protocols, in order to support the overall wellbeing of our players and management staff who have spent much of the last 14 months living in very restricted conditions.”

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