In a remarkable last-minute change to their 15-man
roster for the event in India, which begins in just under three weeks, the
selectors have dropped Jason Roy and replaced him with Harry Brook from
England’s World Cup squad.
Roy, 33, was a crucial part of the England team that
won the World Cup in 2019 and was picked to the preliminary roster for the
country’s title defence before this month’s four-match series against New
Zealand.
However, due to a string of back spasms, he was unable
to participate in any of the four games. Dawid Malan, who competed with Roy for
the opener position, made a strong case for a starting spot in the competition
while he was absent, winning Player of the Series with 277 runs at 92.33 in
three games, including a match-winning century at Lord’s.
Malan and Jonny Bairstow will therefore open the
batting for England when their tournament begins against New Zealand in
Ahmedabad on October 5. Brook, who was notably left out of their initial 15-man
selection, will act as the team’s backup batter instead of Roy.
“We have selected a squad we are confident can go
to India and win the World Cup,” Luke Wright, England’s national selector,
said. “We are blessed with an incredibly strong group of white-ball
players which was underlined by the performances in the series win against a
very good New Zealand team.
“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.”
Before Roy’s back issues forced the selectors’ hands,
his returns had been declining for a while. Although Roy had played in the
majority of England’s ODIs during the last four years, his average had dropped
to 31.78 with a 98.99 strike rate. He showed his perseverance earlier this year
by scoring two hundreds in different situations in Bloemfontein and Mirpur, but
by then he had already been dropped from England’s T20I preparations and had to
forgo their successful run in the T20 World Cup in Australia last November.