Jason Roy dropped from England Cricket World Cup squad as Harry Brook is selected

Jason Roy’s international career is over after England dropped the opener from their final Cricket World Cup squad, instead opting to take Harry Brook to the tournament in India.

Roy was in England’s preliminary squad that was named last month. But, as revealed by i last Friday, he has paid the price for the back injury that ruled him out of the recent four-match ODI series against New Zealand.

In his absence, Dawid Malan nailed down his place in the XI alongside Jonny Bairstow at the top of the order, making scores of 54, 96 and 127 to claim the man-of-the-series award.

It meant the battle between Roy and Brook for the last remaining place in England’s World Cup 15 effectively came down to who coach Matthew Mott and captain Jos Buttler felt would be the best option as a spare batter in the squad.

The hugely-talented Brook, who has taken international cricket by storm in his first year playing for England, won the argument despite a disappointing one-day series against New Zealand when he scored just 37 runs from 68 balls across three innings.

Yet the 24-year-old’s quality and potential were evident in the recent T20 series against New Zealand, when the noise around his initial selection snub for the World Cup grew louder following innings of 43 not out from 27 balls and 67 from 36 in the opening two games at Durham and Manchester.

And given Roy has only ever opened in his 110 ODI appearances, Brook’s versatility and ability to bat anywhere in the top six gave him the clear edge when it came to selection for the tournament that begins with England taking on New Zealand at Ahmedabad on 5 October.

The rest of England’s squad is the same as the preliminary 15 named on 16 August.

England men’s national selector, Luke Wright, said: “We have selected a squad we are confident can go to India and win the World Cup. We are blessed with an incredibly strong group of white-ball players which was underlined by the performances in the series win against a very good New Zealand team.

“The strength of the group has meant that we have had to make some tough decisions on world-class players with Jason Roy missing out and Harry Brook coming into the squad.”

England’s squad for the Cricket World Cup:

• Jos Buttler (Lancashire – captain)
• Moeen Ali (Warwickshire)
• Gus Atkinson (Surrey)
• Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire)
• Harry Brook (Yorkshire)
• Sam Curran (Surrey)
• Liam Livingstone (Lancashire)
• Dawid Malan (Yorkshire)
• Adil Rashid (Yorkshire)
• Joe Root (Yorkshire)
• Ben Stokes (Durham)
• Reece Topley (Surrey)
• David Willey (Northamptonshire)
• Mark Wood (Durham)
• Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)

Brook is one of only four players under 30 in England’s ageing squad and is the only member aged under 25.

For Roy, this is now the end of a distinguished England career and a sad way to go for a player who was a key part of his country’s resurgence in white-ball cricket from 2015 that led to victory in the World Cup on home soil four years later.

Roy scored 443 runs at 63.28 in that tournament, with one century and four 50-plus scores. Of England’s squad, only Ben Stokes averaged more in the tournament.

Yet he has suffered a steady decline in form that also saw him axed from England’s T20 squad ahead of last year’s World Cup win in Australia. His recent form has been patchy too, with his highest score in 24 innings across all cricket dating back to March being 61.

Roy had exited the final months of his England contract earlier this summer to take up a lucrative offer to play in US Major League Cricket. He was reassured at the time that that decision would not affect his World Cup chances.

That remained the case for a hugely-loyal England set-up, but in the end it was his fitness and Malan’s stunning form that has cost him the chance to play in another World Cup.