Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra reckons Harry Brook’s indifferent performances in IPL 2023 could be a reason for his omission from England’s provisional squad for the upcoming World Cup as well. The mega event will take place in India from October 5 to November 19. Ben Stokes, who returned from his ODI retirement for England’s title defence, has been picked ahead of the big-hitting Yorkshire batter in their 15-member squad as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said: “Harry Brook’s name is not there although there were a lot of speculations that he will eventually make it as he is too good a player to miss out. He is an amazing player, hits a lot of sixes, but is not part of this squad. Does it have anything to do with his struggle in the IPL? He scored a century in Kolkata but other than that, he was finding it extremely difficult to reach double digits as well. He batted up the order at times and down the order on other occasions but his bat didn’t fire properly. So could that be the reason? We don’t know.”
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However, Harry Brook scored 190 runs which came at an average of 21.11 and a strike rate of 123.37 in his 11 innings in IPL 2023. Apart from his unbeaten 100-run knock against KKR, he managed just 90 runs in his other 10 innings as well. Moreover, Harry Brook has played just three ODIs so far.
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“I felt it was the 16th August story that was there on the ICC website but this is the latest, which has the announcement of the other squads as well. So Harry Brook is missing out. The provisional squad can be changed till the 28th of September. So he might still reach there. Michael Vaughan believed he would reach there. I think Kevin Pietersen also said that he will definitely be there but Harry Brook at this point in time is missing out,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
