Liam Livingstone on England future: 'I don't know where I stand'

Liam Livingstone has revealed that he has not exchanged "a single word" with England's management since he was dropped from their white-ball squads in May, and believes his versatility has worked against him in selection.

Livingstone, who turned 32 this month, has not played for England in any format since their group-stage exit at the Champions Trophy in March. He has since won the IPL with Royal Challengers Bengaluru - though had a limited role, scoring 112 runs in eight innings - and is the leading run-scorer in the men's Hundred this season while captaining Birmingham Phoenix.

It was only last year that Livingstone captained England in an ODI series in the Caribbean, but he did not feature in the white-ball squads named on Friday to face South Africa and Ireland next month. His central contract is due to expire later this year, and he told talkSPORT's Following On podcast on Tuesday that he is unclear where his future lies.

"Obviously I didn't have a great series in India and Pakistan and I hold my hands up: I wasn't good enough out there. But I probably wasn't the only one," Livingstone said. "I don't know where I stand with England, to be honest. The frustrating part for me is I feel like I've got my best cricket ahead of me."

He said that a phone call from Brendon McCullum during the IPL telling him he had been dropped from England's squads to face West Indies in June was his most recent contact with "any of the top four people in charge" - the others being managing director, Rob Key, national selector, Luke Wright, and captain, Harry Brook.

"I absolutely love playing for England… Nothing makes me prouder than being able to represent my country. At my age now, I feel like this is where people start to really come into their prime as a batter. You look at Jos [Buttler] over the last few years and I feel like, coming into a [T20] World Cup year, I could really help an England team go a long way to winning a World Cup.

"That's probably the frustrating thing for me: I would love to help. I would love to play for England. I feel like I'm still good enough to play for England. But I haven't had a single word since halfway through the IPL, so I don't really know where I stand, to be honest… I probably feel like right now, I'm playing as well as I ever have done in my whole career."

England have primarily used Livingstone as a finisher in both white-ball formats, but he has generally performed better higher up the order: in T20Is, his record is far better at No. 4 than in any other role, while his best ODI innings came from No. 5 last year, when he hit a match-winning 124 not out against West Indies in Antigua.

"That's probably been one of my biggest frustrations," he said. "Whenever I've gone up the order, I've actually done really well for England. Maybe my versatility has probably been against me a little bit: being able to come in further down the order and hit sixes from ball one is obviously not something that a lot of people can do.

"I feel like I'm a batter that can go on and win games for whoever I'm playing for, not necessarily a slogger down the order that can come in and come off every now and then. I feel like I've got more game than that, to be honest. The more responsibility I've had in my career, the better I've done… Certainly, I feel like I'm thriving on it at the moment with the Phoenix."

Livingstone has been overtaken in the pecking order by two other spin-bowling allrounders in Will Jacks - who was not involved under Buttler's captaincy earlier this year, but impressed under Brook's leadership against West Indies in June - and Jacob Bethell, his Phoenix team-mate in the Hundred who will become England's youngest captain in Ireland next month.