Image Credit – ECB
For personal reasons, Harry Brook has pulled out of
the England Test team to tour India. Dan Lawrence will be called up by England
to replace him at the beginning of the five-Test series, as he is expected to
miss it.
The group was supposed to land in Hyderabad on Sunday,
in time for the first Test to begin on Thursday. However, Brook will not be
travelling with the group after he returned home from the team’s training camp
in the United Arab Emirates.
The ECB said in a statement: “Harry Brook is set
to return home with immediate effect for personal reasons from the England
Men’s Test tour of India. The Brook family respectfully requests privacy during
this time. In light of this, the ECB and the family kindly request the media
and the public to respect their wish for privacy and refrain from intruding on
their private space.”
England’s hopes of becoming the first side to win a
Test series in India in over ten years have taken a serious hit with Brook’s
departure. He has averaged 62.15 at a strike rate of 91.76 from 12 matches
since making his debut in the last Test of the summer of 2022, with four
hundreds.
During the Ashes, he was briefly elevated to No. 3
following Ollie Pope’s shoulder injury that ended the series, before Moeen Ali
went up as a stopgap. Pope is healthy enough to go back to India, so England
will need to reconsider their middle order.
With Ben Foakes available to keep wicket, England may
once again use Jonny Bairstow as a specialist batsman to fill the void at No. 5
in Brook’s absence.
Lawrence, who was the backup batter for the Test team
last summer, is scheduled to travel to India in the coming days. He had just
landed in the UAE for the ILT20 following a stint in the Big Bash League.
Lawrence’s final Test match was in March 2022 during the Caribbean tour, just
before the team was revitalised by the simultaneous additions of captain and
coach Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes.
After spending the last ten days in Abu Dhabi, England
will train at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday.