Harry Brook pulls out of England tour of India،
Harry Brook has withdrawn from the England Test squad to tour India due to personal reasons. He is expected to miss the start of the five-Test series, with England calling up Dan Lawrence to replace him.
The team was due to arrive in Hyderabad on Sunday, before the start of the first Test on Thursday, but Brook will no longer be with the group after returning from the team's training camp in the United Arab Emirates.
The ECB said in a statement: “Harry Brook is set to return home with immediate effect for personal reasons following England's men's Test tour of India. The Brook family respectfully request privacy during this period. In light of this, the ECB and the family please ask the media and the public to respect their wish for privacy and refrain from intruding on their private space.
Although officially ruled out of the entire tour, ESPNcricinfo understands that Brook could still return at a later date.
The loss of Brook comes as a blow to England's attempts to become the first team to win a Test series in India in more than a decade. Since his debut in the final Test in the summer of 2022, he has averaged 62.15, with a strike rate of 91.76, in 12 appearances, with four hundreds.
He was briefly promoted to No. 3 during the Ashes, after Ollie Pope suffered a series-ending shoulder injury, before Moeen Ali moved up as a stopgap measure. The Pope is fit to return to India, which means England will have to rethink its middle order.
Brook's absence could see England deploy Jonny Bairstow again as a specialist batter, filling the void at No.5, with Ben Foakes available to keep wicket.
Lawrence, the reserve batter for the Test team last summer, had recently arrived in the UAE for the ILT20 after a stint in the Big Bash League, but will travel to India in the coming days. Lawrence's last Test appearance came in March 2022, on the Caribbean tour, shortly before the dual appointments of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes as coach and captain helped revitalize the team.
There are also a number of back-up options among the England Lions squad currently in India, with Josh Bohannon, in particular, impressing with a century in Ahmedabad earlier this week.
England will train at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday, after spending the last ten days in Abu Dhabi to acclimatise for the tour.
