'Not a nice job to do': England skipper Jos Buttler on informing Jason Roy about his World Cup squad omission

England made a hard decision to drop Jason Roy from the ODI World Cup squad despite selecting him in the provisional squad a month ago. The batsman, however, couldn't play the next four ODIs for England against New Zealand due to back spasms and lost his place in the team to Harry Brook.

England skipper Jos Buttler, speaking on Roy's omission, said that it was his responsibility to call the batsman and inform him about being dropped from the side.

"It was a really tough [phone] call to make," Buttler said to the PA news agency at a Castore event.

"I don't think any time is easy. 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," added Buttler.

The England skipper, however, made it clear that Roy, the member of their 2019 World Cup wining team, will be a reserve batter for the squad but won't travel to India.

"Jason will be the top-order reserve, absolutely," Buttler said. "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 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."

England are entering the ODI World Cup as a defending champion for the first time in tournament's history as they start their campaign the opening day, October 5, against New Zealand.