BRIDGETOWN — At a captain’s press conference at Kensington Oval on Saturday, Jos Buttler was asked whether England would play both Jofra Archer and Mark Wood in the same team in Barbados this week.
“Certainly an option, yes,” said England’s captain. Mitchell Marsh, Buttler’s Australian counterpart, jokingly pleaded: “I think just one of those.”
The good news for Richie Berrington, Scotland’s captain, who was only asked three questions at the event, is that England are likely to go with only one of their express pace bowlers – Archer – when the teams meet in their opening T20 World Cup match on Tuesday.
But that probably means bad news for Marsh and his team this weekend, with England almost certain to unleash both 90-miles-per-hour quicks against the Australians for the first time in four years for Saturday’s crunch Group B clash at Kensington Oval.
Archer has played just three games of cricket in the past 13 months and is being carefully managed by England. Initial feedback from his two appearances against Pakistan at the end of last month was that the 29-year-old was in a good place both physically and mentally after taking three wickets across both matches at Edgbaston and The Oval. He looks a lock to start the tournament on Tuesday.
The inclusion of Wood for that match is less certain. The 34-year-old took two for 35 at The Oval in his first match since the final Test against India at Dharamshala in early March. His electric performance saw him hit 96 miles per hour – a massively positive sign for him and England.
Yet having been troubled with an injury to his left knee since that India tour, he really will have to be managed carefully in this tournament.
It means Archer, set to play his first match for England in the Caribbean since qualifying in 2019, will face Scotland on his home island of Barbados on Tuesday. England are likely to hold Wood back for the Aussies on Saturday.
Having turned last summer’s Ashes series on its head when he was introduced to the team in the third Test at Headingley, England know how little Australia like facing Wood, who was also the standout performer during an otherwise desperate Ashes tour Down Under in the winter of 2021-22.
Twenty20 is a completely different format, yet England know his presence in the XI come Saturday may give them a mental edge – especially if he is paired with Archer.
The pair, England’s leading wicket takers during the 2019 home 50-over World Cup win, have not played together against Australia in any format since a behind-closed-doors Covid ODI series in the summer of 2020.
Together, especially against Australia, whose memories of Archer go back to his stellar debut Test series in the 2019 Ashes, they can be an explosive partnership. Indeed, Archer has only faced Australia six times since 2019, all in white-ball matches in front of no fans the following summer.
Archer and Wood are likely only to be paired for the biggest matches – and Australia, especially with the impetus beating them on Saturday would give them, is England’s biggest of the first round by far.
Expect both to be rotated until the Super Eight stage – presuming Buttler’s men qualify – and Reece Topley, England’s standout bowler during a horrendous 50-over World Cup in India last autumn, taking his place in an attack alongside Chris Jordan, one of Archer or Wood and Adil Rashid.
Topley’s left-arm angle give him a crucial point of difference, meaning he is likely to play the majority of games. Jordan, recalled at the age of 35 for this tournament, is helped by his ability to hit sixes from ball one late in innings, his status as England’s best fielder and his experience bowling at the death.
Rashid’s leg-spin has been a bedrock of England’s white-ball success over the past nine years and he is in for every game barring injury.
With six of the top seven in the team set in stone – Phil Salt, Buttler, Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook and Moeen Ali are all certainties – it means there really are only two areas of uncertainty for England heading into this World Cup when it comes to selection.
One is that decision on when to pick both Archer and Wood. In the event both play, they could drop either Topley, Jordan or perhaps Liam Livingstone.
The other is the choice between Livingstone or Sam Curran, player of the tournament when England won in Australia two years ago.
At the moment, Livingstone, feeling fit again after a knee injury sustained at the Indian Premier League, is in the XI. He will surely play against Scotland and Australia. Curran’s status has devalued since starring in the last T20 World Cup and he may have to be content with playing sporadically when others are rested, perhaps in the games against Oman and Namibia in Antigua next week.
For now, England look settled. The longer it stays that way the better their chances of defending this World Cup will become.