Cricket World Cup 2019: England squad confirmed as Jofra Archer and Liam Dawson get the nod

Archer’s selection completes a remarkable few months in which he has not just qualified to play for England, but become a likely first-choice

Archer gets the call for the final 15 (Popperfoto)

Nobody ever won a World Cup without breaking a few hearts along the way. And as England named the 15 men who they hope to carry them to glory at Lord’s on July 14, the broken-hearted were David Willey and Joe Denly, both of whom have cruelly been deemed surplus to requirements, making way for Jofra Archer and Liam Dawson respectively.

Archer’s selection completes a remarkable few months in which he has not just qualified to play for England, but become a likely first-choice. His omission from the provisional 15-man squad named last month always bore the faint ring of formality to it: once he made the smooth transition to international cricket, having already proved his worth in the IPL and Big Bash, his place was virtually secure.

For Willey it is an especially tough blow, picked in the provisional squad last month but now set to miss out. Given his one-day international debut in the aftermath of England’s disastrous 2015 World Cup campaign, the Yorkshire left-armer was identified extremely early on in the cycle as a potential 2019 prospect.

But in a team built on ruthless aggression, the numbers haven’t been stacking up for Willey for some time. For a bowler picked on his ability to swing the new white Kookaburra and take wickets in the Powerplay, a haul of just five since the start of 2018 was evidence of a wider decline. Of fast bowlers to take 50 ODI wickets since the last World Cup, only Tim Southee has taken them at a higher average than Willey.

Denly’s omission bears the fingerprints of captain Eoin Morgan. Strongly championed by national selector Ed Smith, Denly has found his opportunities limited during his second spell in the England one-day side, almost a decade after his first. He faced just 21 balls in the recent series against Pakistan, and so minimally did Morgan rate his part-time leg-spin in the third ODI at Bristol that he gave him just a single over, which was clouted for nine runs.

Dawson, the Hampshire left-arm spinner, has long been admired by coach Trevor Bayliss, even though he has not played for England since the ODI tour of Sri Lanka last autumn. He has been in good form in this season’s Royal London One-Day Cup, taking 18 wickets with an economy of just 4.11, and scoring a century against Surrey.

The rest of the squad was as expected, with James Vince the back-up batsman in the absence of Alex Hales, and Tom Curran and Liam Plunkett preferred as seam alternatives to the likely new-ball pairing of Chris Woakes and Archer. It is an attack that consists entirely of right-armers, and yet with the awkward Plunkett, the explosive Archer and the skiddy Mark Wood, it is not one that could be accused of sameness.

Dawson gets the call in place of Joe Denly (Getty)

And so, here we are: the 15 men who are widely held to have England’s best chance of winning the World Cup in a generation. If they do claim England’s first ever global 50-over trophy on home soil, it will naturally be the first XI that do the bulk of the work. But in a 45-day tournament, with nine group games before semi-finals and a final, there is always the scope for injury, rotation or loss of form. England’s selectors have done their bit. Now the real hard work starts.

England Men’s Cricket World Cup Squad

Eoin Morgan (Middlesex) (Captain), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Tom Curran (Surrey), Liam Dawson (Hampshire), Liam Plunkett (Surrey), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Jason Roy (Surrey), Ben Stokes (Durham), James Vince (Hampshire), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire), Mark Wood (Durham)