CWC 2019: 3 players who were unlucky to miss the England squad

Shreyas
Alex Hales' axing from the England squad did hit his team-mates really hard.
Alex Hales' axing from the England squad did hit his team-mates really hard.

The hosts for the Cricket World Cup 2019, England announced their preliminary 15-man squad for the World Cup on April 17th. The team, however, decided to keep the spots in the squad open and stated that the squad was subject to change after the end of the ODI series against Pakistan when young gun Jofra Archer made his debut.

There were a couple of changes to the squad and few players might consider themselves unlucky to be excluded from the team.

Here is England's squad for the World Cup:

England Squad for the World Cup: Eoin Morgan(C), Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett, Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, James Vince, Tom Curran.

England played their first warm-up game against Australia on May 25th losing to them by 12 runs and are testing out the strength of their squad.

While the picks are pretty straight-forward, there are a few players who have been unlucky to miss out from this squad. While the selections are all quality players, there have been a few players who didn't deserve to be excluded.

#3 Alex Hales

Alex Hales' dropping is bad news for both him and the team.
Alex Hales' dropping is bad news for both him and the team.

Alex Hales was one of the certainties in the England side but both the team and him fell out after he was caught for recreational drug use and was subsequently dropped from the team in the Pakistan series as well as the World Cup. The team has expressed their disappointment over the happenings as Hales is making a comeback through the domestic circuit.

While this is Hales' fault and nobody else's, he was on the verge of playing a major role in the world's most prestigious cricketing tournament and was a key player to the side.

Also read - Most runs for tenth wicket

#2 Joe Denly

Joe Denly
Joe Denly

Joe Denly was a stable backup option in the England squad and his patient, stroke-filled method of batting combined with accurate leg-spin made him a good batting all-rounder. However, to make room for all-rounder Liam Dawson, Denly was dropped from the World Cup squad despite being in the initial preliminary squad which was announced on April 19th.

Denly's career was seeing a revival after a long break from international duty and did have a good List A season playing for Kent and wasn't given enough opportunities to bat in the Pakistan series. Hence he might consider himself unlucky to miss out on England's World Cup squad.


#1 David Willey

David Willey
David Willey

David Willey, the pace bowling all-rounder was dropped from the England squad in order to accommodate Jofra Archer in the England squad and though Archer was a worthy addition, Willey didn't deserve to miss out. The left-arm pacer was a wizard with the new ball and the angle he created being a left-arm quick made him a good wicket-taking option.

The current squad for the World Cup has no left-arm pacer and despite the different variations with the England pacers have, Willey would have been a valuable addition and he was unlucky to miss out.

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Edited by Satvik Pandey