England Leave New Captain Out Of Squad

England have left new captain Andrew Strauss out if their provisional squad for the ICC World Twenty20 in June.

Strauss, who uses a Gray Nicholls Powerbow cricket bat, feels that his game is now suited to the crash-bang-wallop format of the Twenty20 game so he will sit out the tournament which will be staged in England in June.

England have delayed naming their captain until closer to the tournament but batsman Robert Key and all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas, who captain Kent and Hampshire respectively, are likely to be among the contenders to be skipper.

Off-spinner Shaun Udal, who turned 40 last month, was included in the 30-man squad which will eventually be cut to 15 for the tournament.

The squad includes Warwickshire's rookie seamer Chris Woakes, who was the county's leading wicket-taker in the County Championship last season.

Woakes, 20, was part of England's Under-19 World Cup squad last year and has never been in a senior squad before though he did impress on an ECB fast bowling camp in India during the winter.

Samit Patel was also included, despite recently being left out of the Twenty20 and one-day matches in the West Indies after failing to "reach acceptable standards of fitness for international cricket.".

England selector Geoff Miller said: "Andrew Strauss had an outstanding tour of the West Indies during a difficult winter.

"Andrew and the selectors believe his game is better suited to Test and one-day international cricket and it is for that reason he has not been selected in the preliminary 30-man squad for the forthcoming ICC World Twenty20. "Andrew is focused on the Test and ODI format of the game despite not being included in the 30-man Twenty20 squad.

"The selectors have decided against naming a captain for the ICC World Twenty20 at this stage because we feel it is important to comprehensively review the recent tour of the Caribbean and seek input from all relevant parties including the incoming England team director who is yet to be appointed. "Once these processes have been achieved the selectors will name England's Twenty20 captain in due course."

The squad contains four other players yet to be capped at international level - Joe Denly from Kent, Middlesex's Eion Morgan, Graham Napier from Essex and Yorkshire youngster Adil Rashid.

England's new cricket captain Andrew Strauss expects his predecessor Kevin Pietersen to be fully committed to the cause in the forthcoming Test series.

England held a press conference in London today ahead of their departure to the Caribbean and Strauss, who was appointed two weeks ago, said that Pietersen was in upbeat mood.

by: Sarfaraz Khan

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