England suffered a massive blow even before the first ball of the Test series against India as batter Harry Brook has pulled out of the entire tour and decided to return home due to "personal reasons".
Brook will go back to the UK immediately and won't be returning to India, the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed on Sunday.
The 24-year-old made his international debut in 2022 and has since played 12 Tests, 15 ODIs and 29 T20Is for England. Brook has amassed 1181 runs in 20 Test knocks at an average of over 62 with 4 hundreds and 7 fifties.
Surrey's Dan Lawrence will join the England Test squad in the next 24 hours as a replacement. He is a 26-year-old middle-order batter who has played 11 Tests so far and scored 551 runs at an average of 29 with four half-centuries.
ECB statement on Harry Brook
"The Brook family respectfully requests privacy during this time. In light of this, the ECB and the family kindly request the media and the public to respect their wish for privacy and refrain from intruding on their private space," the ECB said in a statement.
England looking to end 12-year drought in India
The upcoming India-England Test series will begin from Hyderabad on January 25, followed by other matches at Visakhapatnam (February 2-6), Rajkot (February 15-19), Ranchi (February 23-27) and Dharamshala (March 7-11).
England had last won a Test series in India during their 2012 tour. India have emerged victorious in 16 consecutive Test series at home ever since they lost 2-1 to England 12 years ago.
England Test squad: Ben Stokes (Durham – captain), Rehan Ahmed (Leicestershire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Gus Atkinson (Surrey), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Shoaib Bashir (Somerset), Harry Brook (Yorkshire), Zak Crawley (Kent), Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Tom Hartley (Lancashire), Jack Leach (Somerset), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Ollie Robinson (Sussex), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Mark Wood (Durham)
