ICC T20 World Cup 2022 | In-form England aims to hold both global white-ball titles

A team full of big hitters, England will open their World Cup campaign against Afghanistan in Perth on October 22

England has a strong chance of being the reigning world champion in both of the limited-overs formats despite a renewed push to make test cricket its priority.

The England squad heads into the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia as the current titleholders in the 50-over World Cup following their success on home soil in 2019.

The country's first 50-over world title came after a directive from the England and Wales Cricket Board to shift more resources to white-ball cricket. The national team also came close to winning the T20 World Cup in 2016, reaching the final and looking in good shape to beat the West Indies before Carlos Brathwaite smashed four straight sixes in an extraordinary last over.

Test cricket has typically been the primary focus in England, however, and a humiliating Ashes tour Down Under — Australia swept to a 4-0 series win — sparked what was termed by the ECB as a “red-ball reset," essentially prioritizing the longer format once again.

Still, expectations remain high ahead of the global T20 championship, especially given the star power that has been added to England's squad for the tournament.

Ben Stokes, now England's Test captain, may have quit one-day internationals but the allrounder is still available for T20 and played in that format on the international stage for the first time in the warmup win over Australia on Sunday.

And then there's Alex Hales, the big-hitting opener who not long ago was exiled from the England team following a recreational drugs test failure. It led to England’s white-ball captain at the time, Eoin Morgan, delivering a scathing condemnation of Hales’ behavior, saying he had shown a “complete disregard” for team values and couldn’t be trusted.