England were in a fortunate position in 2019 with so many of their players in their peak years. Of the squad England selected for the successful home tournament, only Archer, Tom Curran (both 24) and Liam Plunkett (age 34) weren't between the ages of the of 27 and 32. Most of the 2019 batsmen should make the next iteration of the competition although they may be starting to feel their ages. Especially in the field it may be an issue, even if the likes of Buttler, Bairstow, Root, Roy and Stokes are excellent athletes. Archer is the only one of the bowlers who you'd definitely back to still be around in 4 years time.
Let's assume that Bairstow, Roy, Root, Buttler, Stokes and Archer are the 6 names that will be pencilled in for the next competition. That leaves 9 spots to compete for in the next 3.5 years.
The World cup will be in India in 2023 and that will provide a great challenge to England. The current spin bowling stocks are poor, and the batting will likely be severely tested by spin from Asian teams looking to neuter England's attacking batsmen. That being said the fundamentals should be there. With the IPL there can be no excuse of lack of experience in the conditions, with Buttler and Bairstow in recent years having standout spells in the IPL. At present you'd have to say that England would be joint second favourites with Australia; behind the behemoth that is India in their own conditions.
Tom Banton and Ollie Pope look the likeliest of the young batsman to break through in that time. Banton, little more than a year into his professional career, is making huge strides already and looks a brilliant talent. He's been often compared to Kevin Pietersen and that is an apt characterisation due to the similarity in strokeplay, but there also shades of Jos Buttler in his ability to hit 360 degrees. Pope has made his way into the test side but the ODI side will be an entirely different issue in the short term given the strength of the batting. However if Pope finds himself averaging 40+ in test cricket then he will be hard to look past, with his solid allround game and accumulation qualities adding steel to the English batting that is likely to be severely tested by spin.
The thing with the omnipresence of domestic t20 leagues is that it means there are bountiful opportunities for young batsmen and bowlers to enhance their games. Currently in the Big Bash uncapped batsman Phil Salt and Liam Livingstone are gaining valuable experience of foreign climes, whilst dealing with the pressures of being overseas players. It certainly wouldn't be a surprise if someone came in from the wilderness on the back of performances in overseas domestic t20 competitions.
Will Eoin Morgan make it at the age of 37 to this world cup? Probably not. He has struggled in India before and it doesn't seem likely that he will stagger to a 5th world cup given his clinical thinking. His captaincy will be much missed and possibly his left handedness in a top order of mainly right handed batsman. Buttler I would favour as captain in Morgan's absence.
Batsmen - Roy, Bairstow, Root, Buttler, Stokes, Pope, Banton
Fast bowling rather like the test team after Broad and Anderson, remains a wide open affair. Jofra Archer as I've already written should be a pivotal player but you'd struggle to predict any others with any certainty. From current England players Woakes, Wood, and Jordan have concerns about their longevity given their ages and/or injury records, with Woakes hopefully still around due to his allround skills. Tom Curran's lower order batting has been improving but the bowling remains average. Whilst he has plenty of changeups he can be expensive and probably lacks a shade of pace at present. He may be competing for a spot with Chris Woakes. Olly Stone seems continuously injured and has struggled to date in the shorter formats so he seems unlikely. Of Saqib Mahmood I have high expectations and he should be an asset in India (assuming he gets a visa) due to his ability to drop the front arm and get reverse swing from a slingy action. A skilled operator last year he began to find real consistency in his new ball bowling where he stands higher and hit back of a length and caused lots of issues for batsman whilst becoming the top wickettaker in the RL cup of 2019. The rank outsider I'd consider a possibility is Matt Fisher. He's been plagued by injuries since breaking onto the scene as a developed 16 year old, but he remains one of England's best prospects. Sam Curran's utility to the side is at present in a stage of flux. Is he an opening bowler? Will he become a batting allrounder? That being said England would like a left arm bowling option and the combative Curran is well placed to offer that option.
Fast Bowling - Archer, Woakes, T Curran, S Mahmood, Fisher, S Curran
Moeen will be 35 by the time the cup comes around and for England's best chance of success lets hope that Moeen remains around the setup and performing. He offers a top 7 batting option and a defensive spin bowling role that he performs decently. The other offspinning and/or batting spinner options are less obvious right now and for that reason Moeen remains the likely choice. The legspinner option(s) are more open with Rashid, Parkinson, Crane, Sowter all offering useful qualities at present, and with the prevalence of T20 cricket still increasing other options may also become available. Liam Dawson may creep in as the third spinner instead of a fast bowler.
SQUAD - Roy, Bairstow, Root, Buttler, Stokes, Pope, Banton, Archer, Woakes, S Mahmood, Fisher, S Curran, Ali, Rashid, Dawson/T Curran
As to the makeup of the final xi
Banton, Bairstow, Root, Pope, Stokes, Buttler (WK/Cap), Ali, Woakes, Rashid, Archer, Mahmood
The makeup of the fictional side was tricky to decide upon. Banton is a special talent and I think in time he will get a chance and succeed. He's already shown good quality against spin in domestic t10 and t20 leagues overseas, and looks more comfortable playing it than Roy. Bairstow could be used as an opener or in the middle order but I think given his current record as opener, England will be reluctant to move him to the middle order, even if it frees up a spot for another destructive opener in Roy.
Root and Pope offer quality batsmanship in the middle order and will hopefully run teams ragged with their efficient accumulation of runs through the early middle parts of the innings. I'd like to see Buttler bat higher, preferably at 5. He could be one of the all time greats and have an even greater impact on England's fortunes from 5. However in the interests of balancing the right and left handers in the middle order, and giving Buttler sufficient rest time as captain and wicketkeeper, by 2023 I can see him back at 6 even if he bats 5 for some time in the intervening 3 years.
There must be at least some concern about the long term of fitness of Ben Stokes. He will only be 31 by the time the world cup comes around but his style of cricket is very punishing on the body. If he can't bowl by this point in time I'm not sure he'll be good enough to get in the side as a batsman alone. In this case they could replace Stokes in the team with a Roy, shuffle Bairstow into the middle order, and utilise Root as the 6th bowler and 3rd spinner; or consider another spin bowling allrounder.
