"Does it have anything to do with his struggle in the IPL?" - Aakash Chopra on Harry Brook's absence from England's provisional World Cup squad

Aakash Chopra reckons Harry Brook's indifferent performances in IPL 2023 could be a factor in his omission from England's provisional squad for the upcoming World Cup.

The quadrennial global event will be played in India from October 5 to November 19. Ben Stokes, who took back his ODI retirement for England's title defense, has been picked ahead of the big-hitting Yorkshire batter in their 15-member squad.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra questioned whether Brook's lean run in the IPL was responsible for his non-selection. He stated:

"Harry Brook's name is not there although there were a lot of speculations that he will eventually make it as he is too good a player to miss out. He is an amazing player, hits a lot of sixes, but is not part of this squad. Does it have anything to do with his struggle in the IPL?"

The former Indian opener pointed out that although the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) batter scored a century against the Kolkata Knight Riders (SRH) at the Eden Gardens, he was found wanting otherwise. He observed:

"He scored a century in Kolkata but other than that, he was finding it extremely difficult to reach double digits as well. He batted up the order at times and down the order on other occasions but his bat didn't fire properly. So could that be the reason? We don't know."

Brook aggregated 190 runs at an average of 21.11 and a strike rate of 123.37 in his 11 innings in IPL 2023. Barring his unbeaten 100-run knock against KKR, he managed just 90 runs in his other 10 innings.

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"Harry Brook is missing out" - Aakash Chopra

Harry Brook has played just three ODIs thus far.

While observing that Harry Brook wasn't included in the original England squad that was picked a few weeks back, Chopra added that his name hasn't been added even by the September 5 provisional squad cut-off date. He said:

"I felt it was the 16th August story that was there on the ICC website but this is the latest, which has the announcement of the other squads as well. So Harry Brook is missing out."

However, the cricketer-turned-commentator acknowledged that the right-handed batter could still make it to England's final squad as has been predicted by some of their legends. He elaborated:

"The provisional squad can be changed till the 28th of September. So he might still reach there. Michael Vaughan believed he would reach there. I think Kevin Pietersen also said that he will definitely be there but Harry Brook at this point in time is missing out."

Brook has been included in England's squad for the ODI series against New Zealand from Friday, September 8. He is likely to compete with Liam Livingstone for a lower-middle-order berth in their final World Cup squad.