London(His). England have amended their 15-man squad for the ODI World Cup, which begins in less than three weeks in India. The selectors have dropped Jason Roy from the team and included Harry Brook in his place.
Roy, 33, was an integral member of the England team that won the World Cup in 2019, and ahead of their four-match series against New Zealand this month, he was named in England’s provisional squad.
However, he was unable to take part in any of the four matches against New Zealand due to persistent back spasms. In his absence, the role of opening batsman was played by Dawid Malan. Malan won the Player of the Series award after scoring 277 runs at an average of 92.33 in three matches, which included a match-winning century at Lord’s.
As a result, it will be Malan and Jonny Bairstow who will open the batting for England when the World Cup begins against New Zealand in Ahmedabad on October 5.
At the same time, Brook did not perform well during the New Zealand series. He scored a total of 37 runs in 68 balls. Brook has played only six ODIs in his career so far, having made his debut in this format in South Africa in January.
However, Brook excelled across all formats last year – especially in Test cricket, where he scored 1181 runs at an average of 62.15 and a strike-rate of 91.
England national selector Luke Wright said, “We have picked a team that we believe can go to India and win the World Cup. We’ve got an incredibly strong group of white-ball players, which was underlined by the performances in the series win against New Zealand. The strength of the group means that with Jason Roy out and Harry Brook coming into the squad, we have had to make some tough decisions on world-class players.”
England’s team for the World Cup is as follows – Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Josh Butler (captain), Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, David Willey, Reece Topley, Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson.
Source: dainikbhaskarup.com
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