Dawid Malan set to take Ben Stokes' place in England's ODI squad

Dawid Malan is set to be added to England’s one-day squad to face Australia after a pragmatic acceptance that Ben Stokes is unlikely to see his ongoing legal situation change in time to make the second half of the tour.

Stokes is currently unavailable for international selection as he waits to discover whether he will be charged for the incident in Bristol on 25 September. His case was handed over to the Criminal Prosecution Service by Avon and Somerset police in late November.

With no update since and time running out before the first of five one-day internationals in Melbourne on 14 January, England are understood to have told Malan he will come into the squad as the all-rounder’s replacement and an official update is expected to be forthcoming.

Stokes was originally included in England’s one-day plans but with an asterisk against his name. It denoted that his selection was essentially theoretical and, as has been the case during the ongoing Ashes series, he would not feature until the resolution of his criminal case.

Tom Harrison, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, recently stated that the situation could well continue for another “six to 12 months” but in the meantime Stokes is free to play domestic cricket, such as his recent spell playing in New Zealand.

The board is also expected to clear Stokes to enter the auction for the 2018 Indian Premier League, with the rationale being that it cannot prevent the cricketer earning a living but there remains a difference between that and representing his country as things stand.

For Malan, the call-up to the one-day set-up represents an opportunity to continue an upward trajectory in the England set-up. The Middlesex left-hander shone on his Twenty20 debut in July with a 44-ball 78 against South Africa and has impressed during the ongoing Ashes series when scoring a maiden century in the third Test at the Waca.

The 30-year-old, an aggressive ball-striker in the white-ball formats with 10 List A hundreds and an average of 42, could challenge for a place anywhere in the top six of Eoin Morgan’s one-day side and has long been considered unfortunate not to break into the set-up sooner.

Alex Hales, who was present at the time of the Stokes incident, is also in the squad but could be forced to bide his time on the sidelines after missing the final two matches of the series against West Indies at the end of the summer and seeing Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow perform strongly in his absence.

Hales was originally suspended alongside Stokes but saw this lifted when cleared of any wrongdoing by the police. His cricket disciplinary hearing will not be held until after the conclusion of the Stokes case, when the all-rounder will also learn of any possible sporting sanction.

Morgan’s one-day team begin their tour of Australia with a warm-up match against a Cricket Australia XI in Sydney on 11 January. The series then gets underway at the MCG three days later, with fixtures in Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide before the finale that marks the opening of the brand new Optus Stadium in Perth on 28 January.