London: Winger Chris Ashton has been given the chance to resurrect his stalled England career after being named in Stuart Lancaster’s bulging 50-man rugby World Cup training squad on Wednesday.

Ashton, joint leading try scorer at the last World Cup, has featured in just two internationals since 2013 but his relentless try-scoring for Saracens this season made an irresistible case for a recall.

The 28-year-old will now battle with Jack Nowell, Anthony Watson, Jonny May, Marland Yarde and David Strettle, another surprise recall who has not featured since 2013, for the wing berths as Christian Wade misses out.

Ashton’s Saracens teammate Maro Itoje was among five uncapped players in the squad, which will be trimmed to 31 in August.

The 20-year-old, who can play lock or in the back row, has forced his way into unexpected contention after a barnstorming second half of the season having captained England under-20s to their World Cup triumph last year.

Exeter flyhalf/centre Henry Slade, his hooker clubmate Luke Cowan-Dickie, Wasps centre Elliot Daley and Bath’s recent rugby league convert Sam Burgess were also given a shot.

The powerful Burgess, who can potentially play flanker or centre, could benefit from the absence of the banned Manu Tuilagi as Lancaster seeks a powerful presence at 12 inside likely outside centre first choice Jonathan Joseph.

“We are excited to name this extended squad, which allows us to look at a wide group of players,” Lancaster said in a statement.

“There are a lot of experienced internationals and it’s also good to have young players in there who have come through our player development pathway and have had great seasons for their clubs.”

France-based duo Steffon Armitage and Nick Abendanon were not included as Lancaster and the Rugby Football Union stuck to their policy of selecting only players performing in the English Premiership, but the door remains open for several injured players, such as Ben Foden and Tom Croft, who could be drafted in during the summer.

The squad, minus those involved in the Premiership play-offs, will go into a training camp at England’s usual Pennyhill Park base next week.

Some of them will be involved in a non-cap match against the Barbarians on May 31 before a reduced squad travels to Denver in the United States for an altitude training camp.

There will then be three warm-up games, two against France and one against Ireland, before England kick off the tournament against Fiji on September 18.