England captain Jos Buttler has opened up on Jason Roy missing out on the 15-member World Cup 2023 squad. However, Roy suffered repeated back spasms, causing him to miss the recent white-ball series against New Zealand as well. Despite being part of the provisional World Cup squad, the injury and Harry Brook’s skill to bat anywhere in the top six saw Roy miss out on a second consecutive World Cup as well. The veteran was also not part of the squad that emerged victorious in last year’s T20 World Cup in Australia, with his axing coming just before the marquee event due to poor form.
During a promotional event of England’s official kit supplier Castore, Buttler said: “I don’t think any time is easy. It’s part of the job as captain that is not enjoyable, whether they’re great friends or not, it’s not a nice job to do. It’s my responsibility to give that news. He’s a really great mate of mine so it was a really tough call to make. Jason will be the top-order reserve, absolutely.”
Harry, we do feel gives us versatility – he can cover one to six in the batting order which is obviously something that’s advantageous in a squad. But good players miss out, it’s the very brutal nature of sport. There’s plenty of people outside the 15 who will have felt that they were in with a really good chance of a spot. It’s a bad headache to have but a good problem as a selection committee when you have a deep pool of players to choose from,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, Jason Roy was a key player in England winning their maiden ODI World Cup at home in 2019, scoring 443 runs at an average of 63.28 and a strike rate of 115.36, with a century and four fifties as well. He has played 116 ODIs for England, with over 4,200 runs at an average of almost 40 and an incredible 105.53 strike rate as well.
“It just shows his hunger to play. He’s someone who over the last four years because of the schedule probably hasn’t played as much 50-over cricket as he would like,” Buttler said. “He’s an experienced guy and he knows what he needs. He’s arguably the best player in our team and he just knows what he needs to get ready. It was very simple for all involved,” he concluded.
