England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Saturday left out wicket-keeper batsman Jonny Bairstow and all-rounder Moeen Ali while announcing their 13-man squad for the first Test against West Indies at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton which will begin from July 8 onwards. ECB also named nine reserves for the Test match which will mark the resumption of international cricket after long three months break due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Bairstow was dropped earlier from the New Zealand tour after a poor Ashes campaign, with selectors asking him to work on his red-ball game. But despite aiming to reclaim the wicketkeeper's position in the Test lineup, which he had expressed before the intra-squad match, Bairstow was left out. He missed the cut to Ben Foakes who was earlier picked for the abandoned Sri Lanka tour. The move was expected given that Foakes was given the gloves ahead of Bairstow in Ben Stokes XI.
Moeen had announced his return to the format after taking a small break following his axing post Ashes failure. But the senior all-rounder now stands amid an uncertain future ahead.
Meanwhile, Ben Stokes will lead the side as announced earlier, in place of regular-skipper Joe Root who will be away on personal reasons but will be back for the Manchester Test.
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
