"Unfortunate One At The Moment": Jos Buttler On Harry Brook's Omission From England's Provisional World Cup Squad

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. 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 at the moment. Of course, Ben Stokes coming back and being available just as a batter sort of changes the dynamic a little bit. Ben's a fantastic player to be able to welcome back, so it's a really tough selection," he added.

There is no obvious like-for-like replacement that would keep the squad's balance despite the fact that other players of England's provisional squad had subpar performances in the Hundred, including Liam Livingstone, who may be Brook's closest power-hitter counterpart. The