Jos Buttler is poised to return to the England team on Sunday for the first of three Twenty20 internationals against Australia, after missing nearly two months with a calf injury as preparations for the T20 World Cup accelerate.
This week, England’s World Cup squad, including three traveling reserves, convened in Perth after traveling to Australia from either Pakistan or England. Chris Jordan and Liam Livingstone, who has been suffering from finger and ankle injuries respectively, are considered more likely to play in Wednesday’s second game in Canberra than the opener at Optus Stadium. Tymal Mills has fully recovered from the toe injury that forced him to miss the majority of the Hundred.
They will play a depleted Australia squad, which completed a 2-0 series victory against the West Indies with a 31-run victory in Brisbane on Friday night. Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, and Glenn Maxwell have remained on the east coast, while the rest of the squad is scheduled to fly to Perth on Saturday, play on Sunday, and depart on Monday, with those players expected to rejoin the team in the capital.
Buttler was present for each of England’s seven matches in Pakistan but did not play in any of them. In his absence, Moeen Ali served as captain, while Phil Salt opened and kept the wicket. There is always a chance that Salt will continue to serve in both capacities following the captain’s return, although he spent the majority of Friday’s first full training session in the country practicing catches in the outfield.
The extreme security perimeter erected around the team when they were in Pakistan, which included the squad occupying an entire floor of their hotel and traveling to matches and training under police escort, necessitated that each player attends every session.
In Australia, they have adopted a new strategy, similar to the one followed by the Test team since the beginning of the summer, in which no training session is mandatory and players are free to determine how best to guarantee they enter each match at their mental and physical prime.
Salt, like Mills, will return to the Optus Stadium in December to play for Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League. They will meet the coaches of that squad before Sunday’s match, which will be the city’s first taste of international cricket since the end of 2019. Salt posted his greatest BBL score in his only previous game at the venue, with Adelaide Strikers in January 2020.
When the World Cup team was initially released, Rob Key, England’s managing director of men’s cricket, stated that the selectors already had a full starting XI in mind, but it appears that certainty was another victim of Jonny Bairstow’s odd golf injury, which forced him out of the tournament.
On Friday, Salt stated that the team had “not had any conversations” that would indicate a lineup decision had been made. Things change very rapidly in sports, and whatever plans you have the next minute can be thrown out the window,” he added. “So I’m just wanting to play the best cricket I can, and hopefully I’ll be in the XI.”
The competition between Salt and Alex Hales for a single slot at the top of the order will provide an intriguing storyline for the season, but the 26-year-old is doing his best to ignore it. “If you constantly give yourself deadlines, you can become distracted,” he remarked. I’ve found that a more streamlined process is the greatest way to continue improving and performing.
The top contenders for England’s starting eleven are at least included in their roster. Not so for Australia, as Cameron Green, their form player, was left out of their original selection.
Teams who have qualified directly for the Super 12s have until next Sunday to make changes to their squads, after which only injured players can be replaced. However, after Aaron Finch, their captain, all but dismissed the idea on Wednesday, he is running out of chances to make a compelling case for inclusion, and his four-ball one at the Gabba on Friday will not have helped his cause.
