Mark Butcher feels that England has made a mistake by omitting Harry Brook from their provisional squad for the upcoming World Cup 2023 in India.
Brook was snubbed in favour of Ben Stokes, who made a U-turn on his ODI retirement, and was added to the squad. The 24-year-old has only played three matches for England in ODIs, but has been one of the main players for them when it comes to Tests and T20Is. The young batter scored 86 runs during that time.
Brook’s omission from the squad was met with a lot of criticism, with the likes of Jofra Archer, Kevin Pietersen and others voicing their displeasure at the call. The latest one to comment on the call was Butcher, who was disappointed with the decision.
Speaking on Wisden Cricket Podcast, the former cricketer said that, regardless of the small amount of ODI cricket Brook has played, it wouldn’t have taken him much time to get up to speed.
“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,” said Butcher.
Butcher also pointed out that the ageing England batting line-up could miss the young Brook in their ranks.
“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 groupâ€æ 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,” said Brook.
Butcher said that while he wasn’t surprised to see Stokes getting picked, he didn’t expect it to come at the expense of Brook.
“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.”
