Provisional England World Twenty20 Cricket Squad Named

England has named their provisional 30-man squad for the World Twenty20 from April 30-May 16 in the West Indies.

It contains some surprises, with current captain Alistair Cook not named to the squad at all and five uncapped players given the chance.

While Cook is currently captaining England on the tour to Bangladesh, he also captained the Twenty20 side three games ago in South Africa and was part of a 15-man squad in Dubai to play T20 cricket against Pakistan. He probably would have stepped in if Paul Collingwood had been absent.

The Essex opener may not be renowned for his Twenty20 ability, but last season he scored 337 runs at 48 for his county and in the first ODI showed he can play aggressively, scoring 64 of 68 balls.

Other players excluded include Robert Key, Graham Napier, and James Foster, who took part in the last World Twenty20 in England.

The uncapped players, Steven Finn, Michael Lumb, Peter Trego, David Wainwright, and  Chris Woakes, will all find it tough to still be there when the final announcement is made on March 30 and the squad is halved.

All five have been included after impressive performances on the England Lions squad when they toured the UAE, including a defeat of the England side in a Twenty20.

Ravi Bopara and Owais Shah have been out of the picture for a while, but both are set to play in the IPL, which the selectors hope will see them gain a bit of form that they will carry into an England shirt.

Five South African-born players are also included in the squad—Michael Lumb, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Jonathan Trott, and Craig Kieswetter, who only qualified to play for England a few weeks ago.

Another selection dilemma is out-of-form Kevin Pietersen, who has been given permission to leave the England squad as his wife Jessica is expected to give birth to their first child in early May.

Squad in full: Paul Collingwood (captain), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Steven Davies, Joe Denly, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter, Michael Lumb, Sajid Mahmood, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Eoin Morgan, Graham Onions, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett, Matt Prior, Adil Rashid, Owais Shah, Ajmal Shahzad, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Peter Trego, Jonathan Trott, David Wainwright, Chris Woakes, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy.