If you thought Harry Brook’s exclusion from England’s World Cup squad was a mistake at the time, you’ll only have become more convinced of its wrongness since then.
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There was already an oddity to it, with Brook carving up the Hundred on the back of an impressive maiden Ashes series, while Dawid Malan warmed the bench for Trent Rockets. When he then played the best innings in the competition’s history, the fastest Hundred hundred, with his team’s next highest individual score 90 runs below Brook’s tally, his supporters had the perfect hook to hang their ‘What are England thinking?’ arguments on. A sparky 43 not out off 27 to guide England to victory over New Zealand in the first T20I has only underlined that fact.
There was a sense that Jos Buttler might be wavering. “There’s still a long time before everyone is meant to get on the plane, so we’ll wait and see what happens,” he said after Brook’s stunner.
But if you, like England, think that Brook is best as a back-up rather than as first choice, nothing that’s happened since should have changed your mind. The century and the cameo are both the kind of innings of which we know Brook to be capable. Barring a small blip during the IPL, his form has been uniformly scintillating for nigh-on 18 months. England know how good Brook is and have chosen not to play him. It’s a given that there will be a reason, even if people disagree with it. So let’s run over the case again.
England plan, and they plan for when those plans fail. They have depth charts and contingencies. Dawid Malan makes sense in this context, given that he can cover anywhere from opening to No.4. Sure, in the case of injury, England can call for a reserve. But if Jason Roy loses form, as has happened before, there would be no such option. England want enough seamers to rotate, and want the option of three spinners. If Brook isn’t in England’s best team, then there’s a case that he’s also not in their best squad.
But might Brook be in England’s best team? Certainly, Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, three titans of English cricket, are rightly ahead of him in the pecking order, and if England are determined to pick a No.6 who can add value with the ball – one of Moeen Ali or Liam Livingstone – then there is no space for Brook. But is that definitely what they need? In the 2019 World Cup, Stokes bowled, on average, fewer than five overs per game. He might not reach those numbers this time, but could any shortfall be made up by Root, who bowled just 10 overs across the 2019 event?
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Harry Brook celebrates his century for Northern Superchargers during The Hundred[/caption]
The form of England’s frontliners is also a consideration, with any overs from the top six affording flexibility elsewhere. England might have more faith in Moeen this time around than in 2019, when he was dropped midway through the tournament, but equally, if Sam Curran is in the starting XI, he might be less reliable than any of Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer and Liam Plunkett, the seam attack that finished the competition last time around. These things are complicated. It’s easy to say, Player X is good, so Player X must play. But Malan is good too. He also showed, in the first T20I, why T20 cricket is different to the Hundred, with his get-set-and-go approach more suited to the former, and that should make him even more valuable in ODIs.
Still, it’s hard not to feel as if England don’t have all the information they could, and it’s worth dwelling on the circumstances of Brook’s exclusion – and Malan’s inclusion – in England’s World Cup squad. Malan, and credit to him, built up a compelling case in an ODI winter when basically everyone had their attention elsewhere, either on Stokes’ Bazballers or Buttler’s World Cup winners. He made three hundreds on three consecutive tours, in a range of scenarios and conditions, but each equally excellent. Brook, on the other hand, hasn’t had the chance to make his case.
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Since his international debut last winter, England have played 17 ODIs. Brook has played just three. For nine of those – three each against the Netherlands, Australia and Bangladesh – Brook was unavailable due to being involved with England’s Test squad. Those three ODIs included two low scores and one innings of genuine class, a humming, whirring 75-ball 80, the archetypal No.4’s knock.
England have seven more ODIs before the World Cup, and it’s hard to understand why Brook isn’t at least in the group for the New Zealand series. Jofra Archer burst into England’s 2019 World Cup squad in bilaterals against Ireland and New Zealand before the event. Brook hasn’t yet been given the chance to do the same.
Sure, there are complications here too. England are less settled than in 2019, and, weirdly, that makes experimentation harder. Who would England leave out to trial Brook? Roy or Livingstone, who also have plenty to prove? Jonny Bairstow, Root or Stokes, none of whom have played an ODI since last July? Buttler, who will want time to figure out how this all fits together?
But in the space of four games, surely some chance could be found, and it’s still not too late. Give Brook the chance to show why he’s in England’s best XI, or become sure in the decision to leave him out of the best XV. Right now, he hasn’t had it.
