Mark Butcher believes that leaving out Harry Brook from England’s World Cup squad will be a mistake.

There has been a lot of chat around Brook’s omission from England’s provisional World Cup squad that was announced on August 16. Almost the entire English cricket community, ranging from fans to current players to former players, have found it difficult to come to terms with Brook’s exclusion.

Brook has made a wonderful start to his international career, establishing himself as a Test and T20I regular. He made his ODI debut earlier this year in South Africa and has played only three ODIs so far, but those included an entertaining 80 off 75 balls while batting at No.4.

One of the most promising and exciting contemporary young batters in world cricket, Brook was widely expected to be part of England’s World Cup plans, and his omission has come as a shock.

Jofra Archer, Kevin Pietersen, Michael Vaughan, and several others have already voiced their opinions on the matter. Some of them believe that he will still make the final squad by the time the World Cup comes around.

Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Podcast, Mark Butcher expressed his disappointment on Brook missing out on the World Cup squad and said that it might be a mistake.

“I don’t see it, really. Brook is so startlingly good. Regardless of how much or how little ODI cricket that he’s played, it would not take him very long to get up to speed because he is such a rare talent.

“There are some people who just have ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ may be. Finding them to accommodate at the expense of older players who have probably reached their peak, reached their zenith would be a much bolder and much more satisfying move.”

Butcher pointed out England’s ageing batting line-up may miss Brook’s youth and extravagance: “You need that injection of a bit of genius knocking around in these tournaments and Brook has that in spades.

“England’s specialist batters in the group… the youngest is probably Joe Root, at 32. He’s younger than Jos [Buttler]. Jonny’s [Bairstow] 33, [Dawid] Malan’s 35, J [Jason] Roy is 33, Jos is 32, and then you’ve obviously got Ben [Stokes] in there who’s playing as a specialist batter as well at 32.”

Butcher said that while he always expected Ben Stokes to return for the World Cup, but not at Brook’s expense: “It just seems to me that somebody of Brook’s incredible ability should have found a way in. The fact that Stokes has been picked doesn’t surprise anybody, it doesn’t surprise me. I expected that to happen anyway. Didn’t see it coming at the expense of Harry Brook. Brook missing out, I think, is a mistake.”

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