Young Guns set to make a claim
ENGLAND coach Trevor Bayliss says the youngsters picked for next week’s T20 series against South Africa have a chance to stake a claim for a place in the 50-over team for the 2019 World Cup. Lancashire’s highly-promising all-rounder Liam Livingstone is one of five uncapped players in the squad that will contest three T20s against the Proteas, starting at the Ageas Bowl on Wednesday. Hampshire legspinner Mason Crane, Middlesex batsman Dawid Malan, Surrey bowler Tom Curran and Somerset seamer Craig Overton are the others after England decided to rest Moeen Ali, Jake Ball, Adil Rashid, Joe Root and Ben Stokes for the matches in Southampton, Taunton and Cardiff. Bayliss was speaking in the wake of England’s shock
> Champions Trophy semi-final defeat by Pakistan this week.
And the Australian has told the newcomers to the T20 squad that they will have a chance to gatecrash the oneday team ahead of the next major tournament in England.
“I think we’d be remiss if we just said these 15 or 16 guys are going to go to the World Cup in two years time,” said Bayliss. “We’ve got to be sensible about it and if there is someone else who deserves to be in the team then we’ve got to look for that.
“We’ve got the Test guys having a rest for these T20s which allows us to play some new guys and you never know, if one or two of them come up with the goods, they could find themselves in the team in two years’ time.”