Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali notable absentees from 13-man England squad for Southampton Test

Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali have missed out on England's 13-man squad as well as a 9-man reserves contingent that will be taking on the West Indies in the first Test at Southampton on July 8.

International cricket has not taken place sinnce March 13 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but now it is all set to return as England will host West Indies for a three-match Test series.

England show faith in Buttler

Jonny Bairstow had a disappointing 2019 Ashes series due to which he was dropped from the England squad for the two-match Test series away to New Zealand.

In the practice game between Stokes XI and Buttler XI, Bairstow did not make a case for himself as far as the selection was concerned with mediocre scores of 11 and 39. Thus Ben Foakes has been named as England's reserve keeper in the 9-man reserves for the first Test.

Moeen Ali had also taken an indefinite break from Test cricket after he was dropped from the England side after the first Ashes Test where Nathan Lyon made things difficult for him as he struggled with both bat and ball.

He was not available for selection for the New Zealand tour and the South Africa tour but now, even though he was available, England have looked at Dominic Bess as their first-choice spinner for the first Test. Bess also provides stability with the bat and that is something that England are looking forward to utilizing.

Ben Stokes will be leading the side in the first Test as skipper Joe Root will not be available to play with he and his wife awaiting the birth of their second child.

Faith has been shown in Jos Buttler ahead of Jonny Bairstow and he will be looking forward to cash in on the opportunity.

The fast bowling department is well stacked with the experience of James Anderson and Stuart Broad along with the pace and flair of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood.

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Dominic Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler (wk), Zak Crawley, Joe Denly, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

Test Reserves: James Bracey, Sam Curran, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Ollie Robinson, Olly Stone