The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced its ODI and T20I squads for the upcoming tour of South Africa. The T20I series starts on November 27 and the ODI series begins on December 4.
England's matches in South Africa will be staged at Boland Park in Paarl and Newlands, in Cape Town. Newlands will host both the opening T20I and ODI matches.
In what can be considered a unique move, ECB has decided to rest three of its stars who participated in the ongoing IPL 2020. Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes, and Sam Curran were not included in ODI squads but were named in the T20I squad.
Players will be confined to bio-secure bubbles during the tour as they were during the English international season. Stokes and Archer, who played for Rajasthan Royals, and Curran who turned out for Chennai Super Kings were part of the bio-bubble in the IPL as well.
Fast bowler Archer spent 87 days in the England bubble, although he was ruled out of the second Test against the West Indies in Manchester in July after breaching Covid-19 regulations.
Stokes, on the other hand, missed a chunk of the English season to spend time with his ill father in New Zealand. Archer had already posted on social media that he was counting days for the IPL to end and that he was free of the bio-bubble.
Twenty20 squad:
Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (WK), Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, Mark Wood
ODI squad:
Eoin Morgan (Capt), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (WK), Tom Curran, Lewis Gregory, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Olly Stone, Reece Topley, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
Reserves across both formats: Jake Ball, Tom Banton, Tom Helm
Tour itinerary:
27 November: South Africa v England, 1st T20, Newlands, Cape Town
29 November: South Africa v England, 2nd T20, Boland Park, Paarl
1 December: South Africa v England, 3rd T20, Newlands, Cape Town
4 December: South Africa v England, 1st ODI, Newlands, Cape Town
6 December: South Africa v England, 2nd ODI, Boland Park, Paarl
9 December: South Africa v England, 3rd ODI, Newlands, Cape Town
