England drop Jason Roy to accommodate Harry Brook in their World Cup 2023 squad

England have made the tough decision of dropping veteran opener Jason Roy to include young Harry Brook in their ODi World Cup 2023 squad. There was a lot of talk about Brook's exclusion from the provisional squad, but the decision to exclude Roy has raised quite a few eyebrows.

Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow were arguably the foundation at the top order that helped England not only revolutionise their ODI cricket but also win the 2019 World Cup.

Roy continues to suffer a string of bad luck after missing out on the T20 World Cup last year on top of being dropped from the provisional squad for the 50-over mega event this year.

England's chief selector Luke Wright released a statement explaining the change made in the provisional squad and why they included Brook for Roy. He 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."

He further added:

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“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.”

It seemed like it would be one among Dawid Malan and Jason Roy who would miss out if Harry Brook had to come in. The youngster's red-hot form in Tests as well as in The Hundred proved to be too good to ignore for the selectors in the end. Malan and Bairstow could be the likely opening combination at the World Cup.

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England's final World Cup 2023 squad

Jos Buttler (c & wk), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.

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