Harry Brook is going to lead England for the first time in his international career during the forthcoming ODI series against Australia, team management confirmed on Sunday after Jos Buttler was ruled out due to his ongoing calf injury.
Buttler has not played a competitive match since England, who are the defending champions, lost to India in Guyana in June 2018 at the T20 World Cup semifinals.
The 34-year-old Buttler has gone through a major setback in the last few months and missed both the recently-concluded 3-match T20 series as well as a five-match ODI contest against Australia because of injuries.
Brook, 25 years old, now holds only a total of 15 caps in ODIs and during last year’s despairing World Cup campaign for England where they poorly defended their 50-over title in India he said he was still “trying to understand the format”.
But presently they consider this Yorkshire batsman as an imminent long term leader thereby making him an addition in all three international formats within one season.
When Ben Stokes got injured in his hamstring and missed the three-match series against Sri Lanka, Ollie Pope assumed Test captaincy as Phil Salt led T20 side after Buttler was sidelined.
In the Sri Lanka series finale at the Oval earlier this month, Josh Hull who is a 20 year old left-arm fast bowler made his Test debut. He was supposed to be part of the 50-over squad but due to a quad injury he has and will not participate before next month’s trip to Pakistan.
Liam Livingstone has been recalled after two remarkable performances in a T20 series against Australia that is tied 1-1 just before Sunday’s deciding match in Manchester.
The ODI series against current reigning champions Australia commences on Thursday at Trent Bridge ground, Nottinghamshire.
