“He’s got a slight niggle with his hip,” Buttler said when asked about Stokes’ non-involvement against Bangladesh. “But fingers crossed that it’ll be good news for us. We’ll see. He’s working hard with the physios, and we’ll know more when the guys arrive for training today.
“We’ll make the right call. If he’s not fit to play, he’s not fit to play. If he is, we can make that decision. It’s not the time to take big risks on someone at the start of the tournament. Nearer the end, maybe you do take more of a risk with people’s injuries, but it’s going to be a long tournament.”
England are due to select their playing XI for the opening match after training at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Wednesday night. “We’ll see how the guys pull up here at training today – and post-training – and then we can make our decisions,” Buttler said.
“We all know what a fantastic player he is,” Buttler said of Brook. “He’s at the start of an international career that’s been outstanding in T20 cricket and the Test format. He’s not played loads of ODI cricket, but it’s a format that should suit him perfectly.
“It’ll allow him to bat for a long time and make big runs, and that’s something he enjoys doing. He’s got all the shots, and we know from Test cricket that he can play big innings. It’s a format that should suit him really well.”