LONDON: England batsman Harry Brook has revealed his frustration at being left out of the squad for this year’s Cricket World Cup.

Ben Stokes’ decision to come out of One-day International retirement played a key role in Brook failing to make England’s preliminary squad for the defence of their 50-over crown.

The 24-year-old has emerged as one of England’s brightest young talents, helping them to a dramatic drawn Ashes series against Australia recently.

But England’s selectors left him out of a 15-man squad for their four warm-up matches with New Zealand in September.

The same group will most likely be chosen to try and retain the World Cup in India in October and November.

“Obviously it’s disappointing, but I can’t do anything about it now, you’ve just got to move on. I’m trying not to think about it anymore,” Brook said after playing for Northern Superchargers in The Hundred at Lord’s.

“I’ve not had much conversation with (coach) Matthew (Mott) or (captain) Jos (Buttler). They said with Stokesy coming back I was probably going to miss out this time.

“He (Stokes) is one of the best players to ever play cricket, so I can’t really complain, can I?”

While Brook has made a flying start to his Test career, he has played just three ODI matches for England.

“I feel like I’m playing well at the minute and feel I could potentially add value to the team. There’s always something more you could do,” he said.

“I haven’t had much opportunity to play one-day cricket, whether that be for Yorkshire or England and, although I’ve played a lot of T20 cricket, I don’t know I’ve done as well as I have in the past in the last six months, so that might have had an effect.”

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2023