England rest Archer and Stokes for South Africa ODIs

LONDON (Agencies): England’s Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes and Sam Curran will be rested from the one-day international leg of the 50-over world champions’ tour of South Africa, it was announced on Tuesday.

But the three players were all included in the squad for the three Twenty20s, which start later this month, ahead of the three-match ODI series. Players will be confined to bio-secure bubbles during the tour as they were during the English international season. Archer, Stokes and Curran have all been in a new bubble while taking part in the Indian Premier League tournament, which is being staged in the United Arab Emirates on health grounds. Fast bowler Archer spent 87 days in the England bubble, although he was ruled out of the second Test against the West Indies in Manchester in July after breaching Covid-19 regulations.

All-rounder Stokes missed a chunk of the English season to spend time with his ill father in New Zealand but left-arm seamer Curran appeared in both red and white-ball internationals. Archer, speaking last week, said bubble life had been tough even though at the IPL team hotels are away from the grounds and not on-site as they were in England.

“You’re not at the ground but you still can’t get away from cricket,” he explained.  “It’s OK and it will be over soon anyway. You’re just counting days down till you’re free again.” England’s matches in South Africa will be staged at Boland Park in Paarl and Newlands, in Cape Town. Newlands will stage both the opening T20 on November 20 and the first ODI on December 4.

Twenty20 squad: Eoin Morgan (Middlesex, capt), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Sam Billings (Kent), Jos Buttler (Lancashire/wkt), Sam Curran (Surrey), Tom Curran (Surrey), Chris Jordan (Sussex), Dawid Malan (Yorkshire), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Jason Roy (Surrey), Ben Stokes (Durham), Reece Topley (Surrey), Mark Wood (Durham)

ODI squad: Eoin Morgan (Middlesex, capt), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Sam Billings (Kent), Jos Buttler (Lancashire/wkt), Tom Curran (Surrey), Lewis Gregory (Somerset), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Jason Roy (Surrey), Olly Stone (Warwickshire), Reece Topley (Surrey), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire), Mark Wood (Durham).

Reserves across both formats: Jake Ball (Nottinghamshire), Tom Banton (Somerset), Tom Helm (Middlesex).

England Itinerary:

Nov 27: South Africa v England, 1st T20, Newlands, Cape Town

Nov 29: South Africa v England, 2nd T20,  Boland Park, Paarl

Dec 1: South Africa v England, 3rd T20, Newlands, Cape Town

Dec 4: South Africa v England, 1st ODI, Newlands, Cape Town

Dec 6: South Africa v England, 2nd ODI, Boland Park, Paarl

Dec 9:  South Africa v England, 3rd ODI, Newlands, Cape Town.