Lahore [Pakistan], February 25 : England skipper Jos Buttler has said that the team is not worried about batter Harry Brook's recent dip in form, saying it has full "trust and confidence" in one of the "biggest and brightest" young players in world cricket.
England will be playing a crucial do-or-die clash against Afghanistan at Lahore in the ICC Champions Trophy on Tuesday. The form of their star batter, Brook will be key. In four ODIs this year, he has just made 53 runs at an average of 13.25, with best score of 31. His other scores have been, 0, 19 and 3. In the opener against arch-rivals Australia, he could manage just three runs.
"No, I do not have any concerns for Harry. Harry's one of the biggest and brightest young players in the world game. Obviously he has high expectations for himself and wants to perform well and be a match winner for the side and generally speaking, a player of that quality. The longer they do not do that the closer they are always to coming back and performing really well. We know he is an important member of the team - as I said he is one of the best young players in the world so we got full trust and confidence in him," Buttler said at pre-match presser.
On whether the match is a high-stakes one for him personally after fumbling 50-over and T20 World Cup title defences with their poor performances, Buttler said that indeed, one wants to perform well as a captain for England.
"We have not been doing that enough in the recent past, but very soon as you sort of catch yourself thinking about any negative things or that kind of things, trying to completely flip that and focus on all the positive things that could go right and where you can take the team. So, yeah, very much focused on that," he concluded.
England squad: Jos Buttler (c), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Tom Banton, Harry Brook, Rehan Ahmed, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Jamie Smith, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Saqib Mahmood, Phil Salt, Mark Wood
Afghanistan squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Ikram Alikhil, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Nangyal Kharoti, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Farid Malik, Naveed Zadran. Reserves: Darwish Rasooli, Bilal Sami.