Jos Buttler reveals tough phone call to ‘great mate’ Jason Roy over ICC World Cup 2023 snub
England white-ball cricket team captain Jos Buttler revealed how he broke ICC World Cup 2023 omission news to Jason Roy while speaking at an event on Wednesday, September 20. Roy was part of England’s provisional squad for the mega tournament in India but was axed from the final squad with Harry Brook taking his place.
Roy, 33, has scored over 4,000 runs in ODIs and was famously snubbed from England’s T20 World Cup squad last year. He missed the four-match ODI series against New Zealand due to back-spasm but was in excellent form in ODIs this year. He last played ODIs in March where he was the leading run-getter on England tour of Bangladesh with 155 runs in just three innings. So missing a major tournament like the World Cup, probably his last, will be a hard one to digest for the batter, and more painful for the team management to make such a decision.
Buttler revealed that as a captain, he was the first to break the World Cup omission news over a phone call to his ‘great mate’ and said it was not a good experience for him.
“I don’t think any time is easy,” Buttler told PA News Agency on Wednesday. “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.”
Buttler also added that Roy will travel to India as a reserve batter and revealed the reason behind Brook’s selection over Roy for the World Cup. The veteran wicketkeeper batter said that Brook’s versatility to play in any batting position will be a big advantage for the Three Lions and that was the reason behind selecting him in the final squad.
“Jason will be the top-order reserve, absolutely. Harry, we do feel gives us versatility, he can cover Nos. 1 to 6 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 the 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,” Buttler added.
England ICC World Cup 2023 Squad: Jos Buttler (c & wk), Moeen Ali (vc), Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Harry Brook, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson
