Former England Test skipper Joe Root has been added to England’s first ODI squad against Ireland at Headingley by choice. England’s initial squad did not include a single player from their preliminary ODI World Cup squad for the three-match ODI series. Harry Brook was the only exception, he was part of the ODI series but after being included in the squad in place of Jason Roy, he will be rested for the entire series. Root will look to gain some momentum before the ODI World Cup begins on October 5. He has struggled for form during England’s recently concluded 3-1 series win over New Zealand, taking 6, 0 and 4 in the first three matches before a rusty 29(40) in the fourth ODI at Lord’s. His knock further exposed his lack of rhythm and consistency in the 50-over format.
Overall, since England’s triumph in the 2019 World Cup, he has only batted 16 times in the ODI format.
England national selector Luke Wright revealed Roots was “asked to be involved” in Wednesday’s first ODI.
“Like a lot of people, he gets that rhythm with 50-over cricket. Obviously, we don’t play [much of] that in this country, but a lot of those lads haven’t played a lot of 50-over cricket, especially someone like Joe,” Wright said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
“He just wanted a little more time. It’s a great thing for someone to still have that desire to keep wanting to do more and more. It shows where he’s at with his game and what makes him such a world-class player that when he doesn’t feel quite right, he still wants to tinker and do more. As much as we probably thought he needed a break, he just wanted another go,” Wright added.
Wright went on to indicate that Roy, who is suffering from back spasms, could feature in the second as well as the third ODI against Ireland.
“We’ve given Jason the opportunity to be involved and he still has the opportunity,” Wright said. “He wasn’t expected to be in the Ireland squad and then it came as a bit of a hammer blow to get the news that he missed the World Cup so we’ve left it up to Jason… We’re working on it over the the next few days.”
England play the first ODI against Ireland on Wednesday at Headingley.
England vs Ireland squad: Zak Crawley (c), Ben Duckett (vc), Rehan Ahmed, Joe Root (first ODI only), Brydon Carse, Sam Hain, Will Jacks, Craig Overton, Matthew Potts, Phil Salt, George Scrimshaw, Jamie Smith, Luke Wood.
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