England are ready to turn to Liam Dawson as the final piece of their World Cup jigsaw when the squad is named on Tuesday, despite not playing him at all this year.

It means no World Cup dream for Joe Denly, who had been a part of the preliminary squad along with David Willey who is set to make way for Jofra Archer . The final change from the initial 15-man squad named last month is the obvious call-up of James Vince as the spare batsman in place of Alex Hales.

Of the three, only Willey can be truly aggrieved at the news after playing in 46 of England's 88 one-day games since the last World Cup.

Dawson has been out of England's ODI side for months but is in terrific form for Hampshire (
Image:
Getty)

However, the late availability and then performances of Archer this summer meant that one of the seam bowlers would have to make way. Archer provides raw pace that is hard to come by, and with Mark Wood also operating above 90 miles per hour England's bowling attack now has more menace than before.

The elevation of Dawson over Denly is down to the simple fact that his left arm spin bowling is far more reliable, and England will want a spinner they can count on for 10 overs if there were to be a late injury to Moeen Ali or Adil Rashid.

Willey faces missing out despite playing in more than half England's ODIs over the last four years (
Image:
Getty)

Dawson has only played three ODIs, the most recent in Sri Lanka last October before he left the tour injured with a side strain, but he has been in stunning form to help Hampshire reach the Royal London Cup Final.

“Liam's been in conversations for the last six months or more,” said coach Trevor Bayliss. “He was in Sri Lanka with us and if it wasn’t for an injury he’d have probably finished that series and possibly gone to the West Indies as well.”

PROBABLE SQUAD Roy, Bairstow, Root, Morgan (c), Stokes, Buttler (wk), Moeen, Woakes, Rashid, Plunkett, Archer, Wood, Vince, Dawson, Curran.

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