England considering punting on Stokes, Archer for World Cup

England haven't given up on the possibility of fielding two heroes from their ODI World Cup win from four years ago, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer, during their title defence in India later this year. Stokes gave up the 50-over format last year citing the 'increasing demands of international cricket on his body' while Archer has been laid low by recurrence of the stress fracture on his elbow.

The men's team's national selectors will announce a provisional 18-member squad this Tuesday and white-ball coach Matthew Mott has expressed hope that both big-match players could yet be available. While Archer has resumed bowling in the nets after being ruled out of the Ashes series, there is a intrigue over the Stokes' status, with Mott even happy to have a proven match-winner like him in a batting-only capacity given his recent concerns with the knee.

And retirement u-turns in England may just be in vogue with Moeen Ali temporarily returning to Test cricket on Stokes' request. The talismanic all-rounder will be at the receiving end of a similar call.

"Jos [Buttler] will probably lead the way on that communication, but Ben's pretty straight with all of us. We will see if he's keen," Mott told Daily Mail. "There has not been a clear direction on what he's going to do yet, but we are still hopeful. I've always said his bowling would be a bonus, but just look at what he brings with the bat, even in the field.

"Watching him throughout the whole Ashes series, he had such a great presence. He's done it for years when it comes to performing in one-day cricket and so he's an invaluable commodity."

There is more hope that Archer will be available to make that trip to India despite his injury setback. The 28-year-old fast bowler showed no signs of rust earlier this year during his first return from injury claiming career-best ODI figures of 6/40 against South Africa in just his second game back. He also operated at near peak levels with regards to pace in the series in Bangladesh and alongside Mark Wood will offer England much-needed air-speed to defeat batters on what should be batting friendly wickets in India.

"It would be a big ask for him to play every game, so we would have to target specific ones, but we are big on ball speed for India, we feel like that's a really important asset for us to have out there and it will be good to see Mark Wood, who had such an impact in the Ashes, do the same with the white ball.

"The thing about pace like that is it's not just the immediate impact of unsettling or making opponents feel uncomfortable, it's the whole aura that it creates around the team. Look at Wood's impact at the back end of the Ashes. Everyone else on that field fed off his energy and what he brought.

"If you can upset top orders and deny the big hundred-makers, that goes a really long way to winning games over there. If you look at the way India play, they set their stall out to make sure people are 'in' at the 40-over mark and therefore able to score 100-plus during the last 10 - and that is very hard to stop," Mott said.

England will announce their squad this week but will have time until September 28 as per ICC regulations to prune their squad down to 15. That'll give them sufficient time to assess the pair's readiness for the marquee event.