Following Ben Stokes‘ decision to return to the one-day format, England opted to exclude Brook from the lineup, despite his recent impressive performance where he showcased his explosive batting skills by scoring a century off just 41 balls in The Hundred competition.
Brook, aged 24, has been designated as a reserve player for the Indian tour. It’s noteworthy that England retain the flexibility to make adjustments to their provisional squad until September 28.
“There’s still a long time before everyone’s meant to get on the plane so we’ll wait and see what happens,” Buttler said on Friday.
“We all know Harry’s a fantastic player and we saw what he can do the other night. It’s not like it’s a surprise, we know what a brilliant player he is.
“He’s just the unfortunate one at the moment to not be in that squad. Ben Stokes coming back and being available just as a batter changes the dynamic a little bit.”
A key architect of England’s World Cup triumphs in 2019 (ODI) and 2022 (T20), test captain Stokes announced his shock ODI retirement in July last year, citing his workload. But he reversed course this month and was picked for the upcoming home series against New Zealand.
England are more than happy to greet him back into the ODI squad, even though the talismanic all-rounder, who has been grappling with a troublesome knee of late, will play as a specialist batter.
“Ben’s a fantastic player to be able to welcome back,” Buttler said.
“It’s a really tough selection, there have been players performing really well over a period of time and that’s where we are at the minute.”
England will begin their title defence against New Zealand in Ahmedabad on Oct. 5 in a rematch of the 2019 final.
(With Reuters Inputs)