{"id":380165,"date":"2025-12-30T09:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T09:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/380165\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T09:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T09:59:08","slug":"england-drop-jamie-smith-from-t20-world-cup-squad-and-include-jofra-archer-england-cricket-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/380165\/","title":{"rendered":"England drop Jamie Smith from T20 World Cup squad and include Jofra Archer | England cricket team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jamie Smith has been dropped from England\u2019s T20 World Cup<\/a> squad, but the injured Jofra Archer and uncapped fast bowler Josh Tongue have both been included.<\/p>\n

Test performances in Australia are hardly the most obvious metric for a short-form tournament taking place in Sri Lanka and India in February, but Smith\u2019s dramatic loss of form in the Ashes may be a factor in his omission.<\/p>\n

The wicketkeeper-batter smashed 60 from 26 balls in his last T20 appearance, against West Indies in June, but was rested due to a heavy workload from the subsequent series against South Africa and Ireland. Now, after a difficult tour of Australia in which he has averaged 19.85 with the bat and struggle at times behind the stumps, he has been left out entirely.<\/p>\n

Tongue\u2019s stock has gone in the opposite direction after impressive performances in Adelaide and Melbourne. He has never played white-ball cricket for England but did finish as top wicket-taker in last season\u2019s Hundred competition, claiming 14 in six games, and boasts a Twenty20<\/a> strike-rate of a wicket every 12.5 balls.<\/p>\n

Archer has been included in the 16-man squad in the expectation that his recovery from a left side strain will be complete by then. The pace bowler played each of the first three Ashes Tests before pulling up with the latest in a long line of fitness problems and is expected to be out for three to six weeks.<\/p>\n

That puts him on a tight timeline for England\u2019s first group game, on 8 February, and Brydon Carse has effectively been named as his understudy. Carse will travel as part of the one-day international and T20 squads for the bilateral tour of Sri Lanka that precedes the tournament, standing by to replace Archer if there are any hiccups in his comeback.<\/p>\n

Jofra Archer will play no further part in the Ashes in Australia after being diagnosed with a side strain. Photograph: Morgan Hancock\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Test opener Zak Crawley also appears in the 50-over leg of that trip, despite playing no List A cricket since his last ODI outing in December 2023. Ben Duckett has been retained after a taxing time in Australia, where his faltering form and apparently intoxicated appearance in a social media clip have put him under the spotlight.<\/p>\n

Like Smith, he was given time off at the end of the English season to protect against burnout but management have concluded he is still fresh enough to play his part on the subcontinent, where his ability against spin could be useful.<\/p>\n

Harry Brook will lead his first World Cup campaign as captain with a familiar roll call of players he has leaned on since taking over, including his predecessor, Jos Buttler, Phil Salt, Jacob Bethell, Adil Rashid, Sam Curran, Liam Dawson and Luke Wood. The fast bowling all-rounder Jamie Overton, leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed and batter Tom Banton also get the nod. Essex\u2019s Jordan Cox was close to making the cut and is likely to be first reserve in case of any withdrawals from the batting group.<\/p>\n

England will face Bangladesh, West Indies, Italy and Nepal in Group C, with the managing director, Rob Key, and head coach, Brendon McCullum, hoping for a strong showing to firm up their positions after the Ashes loss.<\/p>\n

England T20 squad (Sri Lanka tour and T20 World Cup): H Brook (c), R Ahmed, J Archer (T20 WC only), T Banton, J Bethell, J Buttler, B Carse (SL only), S Curran, L Dawson, B Duckett, W Jacks, J Overton, A Rashid, P Salt, J Tongue, L Wood.<\/p>\n

England ODI Squad v Sri Lanka: H Brook (c), R Ahmed, T Banton, J Bethell, J Buttler, B Carse, Z Crawley, S Curran, L Dawson, B Duckett, W Jacks, J Overton, A Rashid, J Root, L Wood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jamie Smith has been dropped from England\u2019s T20 World Cup squad, but the injured Jofra Archer and uncapped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-380165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}