Jason Roy has been dropped from England’s World Cup squad after failing to play any of the four recent one-day internationals against New Zealand because of recurring back spasms, with Harry Brook – despite averaging just 12.33 in three innings across that series – drafted in to replace him.
Brook has exploded on to the international scene over the past 18 months but has played only six ODIs – the first of them in January – while Roy has been a mainstay of England’s 50-overs team for more than eight years.
Since breaking into the side in 2015 he has played 116 of his country’s 139 ODIs, but for the second time in just over a year has lost his place in an England squad at the worst possible time: in the run-up to a World Cup.
Last September Roy was dropped from the T20 squad after a dismal run of form in that format; England went on to win that World Cup in Australia last November. “It was awful, it was incredibly tough to take,” Roy said this month of that experience. “But I feel like I’ve had a pretty good year since.”
Though he has struggled less in ODIs – he has scored two centuries in six innings this year, albeit with three single-digit scores – Roy’s own fitness issues, the success of Dawid Malan in Roy’s traditional position of opener during the series against New Zealand, and the emergence of Brook have combined to force him out of the reckoning.
Jos Buttler, England’s white-ball captain, said on Friday, after his side won the final game against the Black Caps by 100 runs: “The biggest frustration is for him. He wants to be fit, and playing, and affecting games of cricket for England. He’s been working really hard to be fit and available but we now have a few days where we can regroup – the coach, the captain, the selectors or whatever – and just work out exactly what we need to do moving forward.”
Jos Buttler (Lancashire – captain)
Moeen Ali (Warwickshire)
Gus Atkinson (Surrey)
Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire)
Harry Brook (Yorkshire)
Sam Curran (Surrey)
Liam Livingstone (Lancashire)
Dawid Malan (Yorkshire)
Adil Rashid (Yorkshire)
Joe Root (Yorkshire)
Ben Stokes (Durham)
Reece Topley (Surrey)
David Willey (Northamptonshire)
Mark Wood (Durham)
Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)
In the end it has taken them only two. The squad is otherwise the same as that named last month. “We have selected a squad we are confident can go to India and win the World Cup,” said Luke Wright, England men’s national selector. “We are blessed with an incredibly strong group of white-ball players … The strength of the group has meant that we have had to make some tough decisions on world-class players with Jason Roy missing out and Harry Brook coming into the squad.”
