England’s Test captain, Joe Root, has been delivered to the squad for England’s first ODI in opposition to Ireland, with a view to be held at Headingley on Wednesday. Root’s inclusion is at his request as he pursuits to regain his shape in the 50-over layout ahead of the ICC World Cup scheduled for subsequent month.
Initially, England’s 13-man squad for the ODI against Ireland did not include any players from the provisional 15-man World Cup squad. However, after Harry Brook replaced Jason Roy in the World Cup squad, Brook will now rest during the Ireland series, having had a busy summer across different formats.
Root had a challenging time with the bat during England’s recent 3-1 ODI series win against New Zealand. He struggled to find form, with scores of 6, 0, 4, and a scratchy 29 in the fourth ODI at Lord’s. Root has had limited opportunities in ODIs, having only batted 16 times since the 2019 World Cup.
England’s national selector, Luke Wright, explained that Root wanted to participate in Wednesday’s ODI against Ireland to regain his rhythm in 50-over cricket. Wright praised Root’s commitment to improving his game despite initial thoughts that he needed a break.
Luke stated, “He just wanted a bit more time. It’s a great thing for someone to 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 mentioned, “It would be silly of us not to give him a break. You always have to look at how much more batting someone needs versus what mental break they need. I think, in this case, we wanted to give him that break before the World Cup, so he’s going to rest for that Ireland series.”
Additionally, Wright mentioned that Jason Roy could potentially be involved in the second or third ODIs against Ireland. Roy was initially dropped from the World Cup squad due to back spasms that prevented him from playing in the ODI series against New Zealand. England has left the decision about Roy’s involvement in the upcoming ODIs with the player himself.
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Wright said, “We’ve given Jason the option of being involved, and he still has the option. 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.”
Given that the World Cup squad is set to travel to India on September 27 for warm-up matches ahead of the tournament, England has assembled a second-string squad for the Ireland series. Zak Crawley will captain the team, which is expected to train in Leeds before the series opener, although the weather forecast indicates the likelihood of rain affecting the game.
