England captain Jos Buttler has revealed he made it his responsibility to inform his good friend Jason Roy about the heartbreaking news of his snub from the World Cup squad.
The England opener was sacrificed from the World Cup squad to make room for Harry Brook. While Jason Roy was included in England’s preliminary squad, Harry Brook had missed out. The selection call, however, had not gone down well with many as several former cricketers including Kevin Pietersen urged England to include Brook in the squad.
Brook further strengthened his case by scoring a sensational century in The Hundred and followed it up with a few more impressive performances. There were rumours that he might replace Dawid Malan in the England squad. However, Malan finished the recently concluded series against New Zealand as the highest run-scorer and cemented his spot in the squad.
England eventually decided to axe Jason Roy from the squad. The right-handed batsman, who was a key member of the England team that won the ODI World Cup four years ago, missed the series against New Zealand due to a back spasm before being dropped from England’s World Cup squad.
Jos Buttler on informing Jason Roy:
Losing his place in the World Cup after being named in the preliminary squad must have been really tough for Jason Roy. And Jos Buttler has revealed how he informed his teammate about the heartbreaking news. Speaking to Sky Sports, Jos Buttler insisted that it was a difficult call to make to Roy to tell him about his axing.
“I don’t think any time is easy,” Jos Buttler said. “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.”
“I certainly feel like 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,” he added.
Despite the axing, England have left the doors open for Jason Roy to travel to India as a reserve player. Speaking about it, Jos Buttler said: “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 added.
England will be in action on the very first day of the World Cup. The reigning champions will take on New Zealand in the tournament opener on October 5 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
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