England's white-ball captain Jos Buttler has hinted that Harry Brook could yet force his way into the final squad for their World Cup title defence, but emphasised that the "dynamic" of selection was "changed" by Ben Stokes' comeback to ODI cricket as a specialist batter.
With Stokes coming out of retirement and a bunch of other experienced, multi-skilled middle-order batters in the group, Brook was edged out in the World Cup squad.
Test captain Stokes was chosen as a specialist hitter after reversing his ODI retirement, leaving Brook out of the running and omitting him from the preliminary squad to fly to India.
England have until September 28 to finalise their 15-strong group. After being unexpectedly left out of England's 15-man squad last week, Brook replied by scoring 105 runs off just 42 balls for Northern Superchargers on Tuesday night at Headingley. "There's still a long time before everyone is meant to get on the plane, so we'll wait and see what happens," Buttler was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. "We all know Harry's a fantastic player and we saw what he can do the other night.