Harry Brook has pulled out of England’s tour to India dealing the side a big blow just days before the five-Test series starts in Hyderabad on Thursday.

It was announced on Sunday morning that the Yorkshire batsman is to leave the tour for personal reasons and although the official statement said he will not return, England have privately not ruled out him rejoining what is a long trip at some point.

They have called up Surrey’s Dan Lawrence, the spare batsman throughout last summer’s Ashes series, to replace Brook. Lawrence is playing in the ILT20 in Dubai and will fly to India to join the squad after a game on Sunday.

Brook would have batted at five, and after his explosive first year in Test cricket his aggressive batting was set to be an integral part of England’s approach against India, who have lost just three Tests on home soil since 2012.

The England team have been preparing for the tour at a training camp in the UAE and are scheduled to arrive in India on Sunday, but Brook will be flying home.

“Harry Brook is set to return home with immediate effect for personal reasons from the England Men’s Test tour of India. He will not be returning to India,” said an ECB statement.

“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.”

Brook’s absence opens the door for Ollie Pope to return to the side without having to choose between their wicketkeepers Ben Foakes and Jonny Bairstow. It now seems certain that Foakes will keep wicket in the first Test, with Bairstow moving up to No 5.

That leaves England needing to work out the make-up of their bowling attack when they see the Hyderabad surface this week. They are likely to select two of their four seamers and two of the four spinners, plus Joe Root. The uncapped pair Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir are thought to have strongly impressed on turning surfaces during the Abu Dhabi camp and are pushing for debuts. It is possible England opt to select just one seamer if they will believe the pitches will turn starkly.

In just 12 Tests. Brook has scored 1,181 runs at an average of 62 and a strike rate over 90 with four centuries. He averaged 93 on slow pitches in Pakistan a year ago when he burst onto the international scene with three centuries in five innings. He made a crucial 75 in the Headingley Ashes Test as England fought back from 2-0 against Australia and 85 as they levelled the series at the Oval.

England chose to call up Lawrence ahead of the players on the Lions tour to India now. Keaton Jennings and Alex Lees will be on hand if one of the openers, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, is injured, while Josh Bohannon provides middle order cover beyond Lawrence. Jennings and Bohannon, both Lancashire players, scored hundreds in a high-scoring draw against India A in the first unofficial Test in Ahmedabad this week.

Absence makes England’s batting weaker – but removes major headache

The England brains trust’s first thought will naturally have been with Harry Brook and his family as he returns to Yorkshire to attend a serious personal matter. While he will probably return to this tour at some stage, he will be given as much time as he needs.

Once the initial shock of a fast-developing situation subsided, the second thought, though, will surely have been that Brook’s absence in Hyderabad this week for desperately difficult reasons has saved them a desperately difficult conversation with one of his team-mates.

Dan Lawrence has been called up, but surely only as cover. Since Brook’s emphatic emergence with four Test hundreds last winter, England have had eight top-class players to fit into their top seven. First Jonny Bairstow missed out through injury, then Ben Foakes was harshly dropped for the Ashes.

For this tour of India, there were a few further complicating factors.

First, the subcontinent, where wicketkeepers can afford few mistakes standing up to spin, the world-class glove-work makes Foakes an even more important figure. Second, Ben Stokes has not played since a clean-out on his longstanding knee issue in November and will not bowl, leaving Joe Root as England’s fifth bowler. Third, vice-captain and No 3 Ollie Pope has not played since the third serious shoulder injury of his career in July. Pope was in the same position in India three years ago, and struggled.

England selected all eight players in the squad, but refused to be drawn on how they planned to squeeze them into a top seven. A case could be made for any of Pope, Brook (the only one not to have played a Test in India before), Foakes, or the incumbent keeper Bairstow to have been left out. It was possible, too, that Stokes may not have been fit to play.

They have kept their cards close to their chest and, with no prying eyes at their warm-up camp in Abu Dhabi and no form guide to follow, it was not clear what they were planning. Even the players have been in the dark this week, and both Foakes and Bairstow have been preparing as if they would be keeping wicket.

“There is a decision to be made and it hasn’t been made yet,” said Rob Key, the managing director and selection chief, when asked in December about the battle for the gloves between Foakes and Bairstow. Key continued: “A lot can happen between now and then.”

Key has been proved right. There was no need to pin their colours to a mast earlier than they needed to.

Brook is a huge loss. There is barely a Test side in the world who would not want the 24-year-old, who averages 62 in Test cricket and was at the heart of their Ashes resurgence last summer, at No 5. His quick footwork and ability to pick length make him a superb player of spin, and he embodies the Bazball approach to batting.

But without him, England are able to play their best wicketkeeper, Foakes, and Bairstow, at No 5, in an extremely experienced middle order.

Even though Foakes is a fine batsman, especially against spin, England’s strongest batting side is the one they selected in the Ashes. Foakes is required in India, though. Bairstow sparked the Bazball revolution from No 5 in 2022 before Brook benefited from his misfortune after suffering a horrible broken leg. This time, it is Brook’s misfortune that allows England to pick both Bairstow and Foakes.

By the time Brook returns, the picture over the top seven’s form and fitness will be clearer, and he will immediately push for a place in the side.

His unfortunate absence means one selection headache has been eased. The next job is to correctly read the Hyderabad pitch and balance their attack accordingly.