Former England Test skipper Joe Root has been added to England’s first ODI squad against Ireland at Headingley at his own request. England’s initial squad didn’t include a single player from their provisional ODI World Cup squad for the three-match ODI series. Harry Brook was the only exception, he was a part of the ODI series but after being included in the squad in place of Jason Roy, he will rest for the entire series. Root will be looking to gain some momentum before the ODI World Cup commences on October 5. He has struggled for form during England’s recently concluded 3-1 series win over New Zealand, making 6, 0 and 4 in the first three games before a rusty knock of 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 ODI format.
England’s national selector Luke Wright, revealed Root’s “asked to be involved” in Wednesday’s first ODI.
“Like for a lot of people, he is getting that rhythm of 50-over cricket. Obviously, we don’t play [much of] it 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 from ESPNcricinfo.
“He just wanted a bit 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 as well, 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 option of being involved and he still has the option,” Wright said. “He wasn’t expected to be in that Ireland squad and then to get the news that he was missing out on the World Cup came as a bit of a hammer blow, so we’ve left that with Jason…. We’ll work on that one over the next few days.”
England will play the first ODI against Ireland on Wednesday at Headingley.
England squad vs Ireland: 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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