Gleeson, a late developer who made his first-class debut at 27, spent most of the last two seasons sidelined by back injuries and signed a T20-only contract with Lancashire for the Blast this year. He has played every game and taken 20 wickets, the joint-most of an England-qualified bowler, despite combining his playing commitments with a teaching job.
He is the most notable selection in Jos Buttler’s first squads as England’s full-time white-ball captain, which were announced on Friday lunchtime after discussions earlier this week between Rob Key, England’s managing director of men’s cricket, and Brendon McCullum and Matthew Mott, the red- and white-ball coaches respectively, about the workloads of multi-format players.
Luke Wood and David Payne both miss out after travelling to the Netherlands for last month’s ODI series – Payne made his debut in the third ODI – while Root’s return sees Dawid Malan lose his spot in the 50-over side, though he looks set to retain his place at No. 3 in the T20I team.
The T20I series, which starts at the Ageas Bowl on July 7, involves three fixtures in the space of four days, so England are expected to rotate their seamers – not least with Tymal Mills, one of their short-format specialists, reluctant to play back-to-back games due to his injury history.
A number of seamers remain unavailable due to various injury problems, including Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, Tom Curran and Saqib Mahmood. As a result, there is an opportunity for Craig Overton in the ODI squad, while Brydon Carse has been retained in the enforcer role.
Several counties – particularly Lancashire – will be depleted for the knockout stages of the T20 Blast: the T20I series clashes with the quarter-finals, while Finals Day takes place the day before the third ODI.
England T20I squad: Jos Buttler (capt), Moeen Ali, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Richard Gleeson, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Tymal Mills, Matthew Parkinson, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, David Willey
England ODI squad: Jos Buttler (capt), Moeen Ali, Jonathan Bairstow, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Craig Overton, Matthew Parkinson, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey