England cricket squad for West Indies tour to be named Wednesday

England will name their squad for the tour of the West Indies on Wednesday morning with a couple of new faces likely to be included.

Alastair Cook will be back at the helm of the five-day team, but questions remain over a number of players who were involved in the disappointment of the Cricket World Cup, which saw England fail to make it out of their group.

Chief among the doubts who played in the tournament are two injury victims - all-rounders Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes - who have side and foot issues respectively.

   
Moeen is expected to miss the next month or so, after tearing a muscle in his abdomen, although he could be fit in time for the first Test in Antigua on April 13, which comes after a pair of two-day warm-up games in St Kitts over the previous week.

The bulk of the squad seems likely to come from the World Cup party, with James Taylor set to get his chance to add to his two Test caps after being one of few England players to impress over an ultimately disappointing winter.

With a big summer of Ashes cricket ahead, the chance is there for England to rest some of their key players, but it appears that key bowlers Stuart Broad and James Anderson will make the trip to the Caribbean.
Trott set to return

Of those who did not feature in the World Cup, the new faces could include a couple of Yorkshire players and the returning Jonathan Trott.

Trott has been absent from the international scene since leaving the Ashes tour of Australia with a stress-related issue but he had a good summer for Warwickshire last year and also impressed for the England Lions in his native South Africa - he is a possible candidate to open with Cook.

Yorkshire all-rounder Adil Rashid performed well on the Lions tour and could secure a berth as a spin option, especially if Moeen misses out, and his team-mate Adam Lyth could provide another batting option at the top of the order. There has also been talk that Durham seamer Mark Wood might be a surprise inclusion.

Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett are also set to be part of the squad, which will be confirmed by national selector James Whitaker at 11:45am on Wednesday.