England has announced its 30 members’ provisional squad for the World T20 championship, which is going to be held in Sri Lanka in September. Kevin Pietersen has not been named in that squad. In the last few days, there has been lot of talks about whether Pietersen would be included in the squad or not. But, as ECB said earlier, if Pietersen wants to play in T20s, he would have to be available for selection in the ODIs too. But, Pietersen didn’t declare that he is available for selection in all the three formats of the game resulting in his omission from the 30 members’ provisional squad.

One interesting name in the squad is England’s ODI captain Alistair Cook. Cook has never been considered as a T20 player. He has not even played a single T20 game for England. One or two years back, he was not even considered for ODI cricket. He used to play only in the test matches for England. But, after the poor performance of the England team in World Cup 2011, Andrew Strauss announced his retirement from the ODI cricket. After that, Alistair Cook was appointed as the captain of the ODI team. Since then, he has played some brilliant innings in the ODIs. Due to his excellent ODI performances, he has been selected in the 30 members’ squad.

The test wicket keeper, Matt Prior, has also been named in the squad. Since, Craig Kieswetter is not performing consistently in the ODIs and T20s. So, the experienced Matt Prior might be given a chance in the final squad of 15 members. Ian Bell has also been named in the squad. He had been recalled in the ODI squad a few days back just because of the retirement of Kevin Pietersen. But, he performed well in the ODI series against West Indies and Australia and he is a strong candidate for selection in the final squad.