Harry Brook is already showing England his World Cup snub is a mistake

Sometimes a player is just too good to be left out. Harry Brook is one of those cricketers and England’s decision to not take him to the World Cup in October is already looking very suspect.

Brook missed out on selection because Ben Stokes made himself available again for 50-over cricket but only as a batsman. England looked at the schedule and decided they needed depth in bowling which meant a squeeze on batsmen. If Stokes could play as an all-rounder, Brook would have survived and a bowler left out.

It is an unfortunate coincidence for the selectors that Stokes is involved in the decision because leaving Brook out of the 2023 World Cup feels eerily reminiscent to them not taking Stokes to the 2015 tournament where they bombed so badly. Also the real choice was not between those two. It was between Brook, Jason Roy and Dawid Malan.

At least Stokes was out of form in 2015, so there was an element of mitigation for the numbskull decision but that does not apply to Brook, whose century in the Hundred on Tuesday night could not have been better timed. Brook’s hundred off 41 balls is the fastest so far in the Hundred. He hit 11 fours and seven sixes. He now has four T20 internationals against New Zealand to hammer home his point again and force a World Cup rethink.

England’s World Cup squad is only provisional and changes can be made until Sept 28. By then England will have played 11 white-ball games against New Zealand and Ireland. Brook is not part of the One Day International squads so has those four T20s to send a reminder and put pressure on Malan, who is the spare batsman in the squad and realistically the only player he could squeeze out. Jason Roy just has too much credit with England for his previous performances.

The contrast with Malan at the moment could not be more striking. Brook is 24, had a good Ashes, without scoring a hundred that would have capped it all off. He played an important hand in the Headingley win and while Test cricket is no longer the metric used in the white-ball game, it showed his appetite for pressure situations. Brook is a multi-format player with an IPL hundred, and now a hundred in the Hundred.

Brook hits out on his way to a stunning century for Northern Superchargers against Welsh Fire at Headingley Credit: Getty Images/Ashley Allen

Brook with his man-of-the-match award after his 41-ball century in the Hundred Credit: Getty Images/Ashley Allen

He is a fine player of spin, as he proved in Pakistan last winter in both white and red-ball cricket, and in the shorter formats can bat anywhere in the top six. He is the kind of player who could score a double hundred, or a massive century, batting in the top three in 50-over cricket. The slow pitches at the World Cup in India will suit his game, even though he had a tricky first IPL, and by the time the next World Cup comes around in 2027, it is not inconceivable that he could be England captain.

Malan will be 36 when this World Cup starts. He has been dropped by his Hundred team, the Trent Rockets. Roy is 33 with a chequered fitness record and saved his ODI career last summer by slapping the Netherlands around and added hundreds in South Africa and Bangladesh. England do not want to lose the Bairstow-Roy chemistry and Malan’s four hundreds in his last 12 ODIs made it harsh to leave him out.

But the issue for England is who is in form right now? Who is going to win a World Cup in 2023? Eoin Morgan was renowned for his ruthless decision making. He dropped David Willey on the eve of the 2019 tournament for Jofra Archer. Willey had been far more involved in the ODI team in the lead-up to that competition than Malan has been with this one. After the World Cup, Morgan dropped Liam Plunkett, despite his important performance in the final. Loyalty disappeared when Morgan thought a player had run out of road.

Does Jos Buttler have that same edge? This England set-up sticks by players, and that is a good thing because it normally is repaid by performance. Look at Zak Crawley and Bairstow against Australia. But it can be a weakness too and leaving out Brook for the World Cup was a loyalty call; fair enough for ODI series but Buttler will only have one crack at a 50-over World Cup. He needs his best 15 players and Brook is one of the best in the world right now, let alone England.

It was a difficult World Cup squad to pick because England boast so much batting talent. A convincing argument can be made for all those selected but Brook is one of those generational players who come around so rarely. He has only played three ODIs but that is because the system works against him. It is irrelevant too in his case. It would be a ruthless call, and not in keeping with this England set-up, to change the World Cup squad now. But Brook has the chance against New Zealand, starting next week in Durham, to force their hand. He has already delivered a two fingered retort in the Hundred. You would not be surprised if there is another message sent next week.