ENGLAND OPT FOR PINK PRACTICE

ENGLAND’S stars will play in the floodlit County Championship games and gain pink ball experience rather than face South Africa in three Twenty20 internationals. Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Jake Ball are missing from an England squad that includes five uncapped players to take on the Proteas after the Champions Trophy. Instead they will play for their counties in matches that begin a week on Monday, the day after the third international, as England plan for the three day-night Tests in the next year. That means Root and Jonny Bairstow, who is in England’s squad for just the first two T20 internationals, will line up for Yorkshire against Surrey. Jimmy Anderson will make his Lancashire comeback and Alastair Cook will play for Essex. Mark Wood will feature in just the first T20, allowing fans to get an opportunity to see emerging talents like Liam Livingstone and exciting leg-spinner Mason Crane.

Dawid Malan, Tom Curran and Craig Overton, who comes in for Wood for the last two games, are the other uncapped players in an extended squad. Jos Buttler is included by England rather than being sent for pink ball experience, suggesting he may struggle to retain his place in England’s Test line-up. T20 SQUAD: S Billings, J Buttler, M Crane, T Curran, L Dawson, A Hales, C Jordan, L Livingstone, D Malan, E Morgan (capt), L Plunkett, J Roy, D Willey, J Bairstow (first two games), M Wood (first game), C Overton (last two games).