T20 offers a short cut for Ashes hopefuls

JOS BUTTLER joked that if Ben Stokes played the way he did in the T20 World Cup final in a Test match he would drop himself.

It might only have been a throwaway line but there was more than a grain of truth in it.

Stokes has made a point of trying to turn five-day cricket into a turbo-boosted version of the game with big hitting the order of the day.

And with that in mind perhaps the new source of Test match cricketers for next summer’s Ashes will come via the T20 game – and even this squad.

Liam Livingstone is a perfect example. He has already been called up by Stokes and coach Brendon Mccullum to try the red-ball game in Pakistan next month.

He has a decent amount of first-class experience behind him and the no-fear attitude to match. He could be the perfect Ashes foe, just as Stokes was in 2013.

Elsewhere Harry Brook has a bright England future and is well placed to take part next summer, as too is Sam Curran who has been prevented from continuing his Test career by injury, but should be fit and strong enough to resume in 2023.

The rest of the T20 team are either established Test stars already such as Chris Woakes and Mark Wood, or have had their taste and moved on like Alex Hales, Chris Jordan and Adil Rashid.

There are sensible reasons why Buttler

(above) himself is not featuring on the Test radar himself either.

But if you scratch ever so slightly beneath the surface it is no coincidence that Will Jacks and Ben Duckett made a big splash in the T20 side in Pakistan in September and are now gearing up for Test action.

They too could find

Ashes cricket on their agendas next summer.