End beckons for Bairstow and Ali as England pick young white-ball squad

Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali are facing the end of their international careers after being dropped from the England T20 and ODI squads to face Australia next month.
England have named five uncapped players, including the spinning Warwickshire all-rounders Jacob Bethell, 20, and Dan Mousley, 23. There are also call-ups for the seam bowler Josh Hull, who has just been brought into the Test squad, the 23-year-old Hampshire seamer John Turner and the Essex batsman Jordan Cox. The latter, also 23, is in the Test squad and has previously been included in England’s white-ball squad but is yet to make his debut.
Bairstow was dropped from the Test squad at the start of the summer and Rob Key, the managing director of England men’s cricket, said the Yorkshire batsman’s form had dipped across all formats.
Bairstow is playing for Yorkshire in the County Championship at present and has said that his priority is getting back into the England side. However, both the Test and white-ball squads are planning for the future and it is now questionable whether the 34-year-old will ever play international cricket again, although he remains on a two-year multi-format central contract that runs until October 2025 and is worth about £700,000 a year.
Players cannot be removed from central contracts or have their value downgraded, other than for gross misconduct, so Bairstow will be paid by the ECB for the next 14 months.
Ali, 37, has played in 138 ODIs and 92 T20s since making his debut in 2014 but retired from Test cricket after the most recent Ashes series and is only on a one-year central contract that ends in October. England have decided to bring in Mousley and Bethell as long-term alternatives.
The Durham bowler Brydon Carse has also been selected after completing his three-month suspension from all forms of cricket after admitting to placing a number of bets on matches.
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However, there is also no place in the T20 squad for Chris Jordan, also raising doubts about whether the Surrey fast bowler will play for England again. Jordan, who has been a regular in the T20 side for the past decade, is now 35 and although he remains as athletic as ever in the field, the selectors have decided to look ahead to other seam bowlers such as Turner, Hull and Saqib Mahmood, who is back in the side after recovering from a back stress fracture that caused him to miss almost all of the 2023 season.
Gus Atkinson, Harry Brook, Matthew Potts and Jamie Smith have been included from the Test squad involved in the present series against Sri Lanka. The Australia series will be part of their preparation for next year’s ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan in February and March, but they will not play in the T20 matches because they start immediately after the conclusion of this Test series.
Joe Root has been rested for the ODI matches but is set to return to the team in 2025 for the Champions Trophy.
Marcus Trescothick is the interim head coach for the series against Australia, which comprises three T20s and five ODIs, and has been involved in selecting this squad. England intend to appoint a permanent head coach to replace Matthew Mott by the start of next year and will tour India in late January and early February for five ODIs before the Champions Trophy starts.
Jos Buttler remains as captain of the white-ball teams despite two disappointing World Cups and will keep wicket, although both Phil Salt and Smith are back-up options.
T20 squad: Jos Buttler (Captain), Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jordan Cox, Sam Curran, Josh Hull, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Dan Mousley, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, John Turner
ODI squad: Jos Buttler (captain), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ben Duckett, Josh Hull, Will Jacks, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Jamie Smith, Reece Topley, John Turner
England v AustraliaSept 11 First T20, SouthamptonSept 13 Second T20, CardiffSept 15 Third T20, Old Trafford
Sept 19 First ODI, Trent BridgeSept 21 Second ODI, HeadingleySept 24 Third ODI, Chester-le-StreetSept 27 Fourth ODI, Lord’sSept 29 Fifth ODI, Bristol