Dan Lawrence to join England squad for India series as Brook returns home
London, Jan 21: Middle-order batter Dan Lawrence will replace Harry Brook in the England squad for the upcoming five-match Test series against India after the latter returned home because of personal reasons, the ECB announced on Sunday.
Brook had travelled to Abu Dhabi with the team for a preparatory camp ahead of the series, beginning in Hyderabad from January 25.
Lawrence, a 26-year-old from Surrey, will join the rest of his teammates on Monday before travelling to India.
"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," the England and Wales Cricket Board said in a 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," it further said.
Brook made his Test debut in 2022 against South Africa while his last appearance in England whites was against Australia at the Oval in July 2023.
The 24-year-old Yorkshire batter has so far played 12 Tests making 1181 runs at an average of 61 with four hundreds and seven fifties.
Brook's impressive effort had helped England clean-sweep the series against Pakistan in late 2022. He was the Player of the Series after making 468 runs from five innings at an average of 93.60.
In comparison, Lawrence has made 551 runs from 11 matches at 29 with four fifties.
It's a bit of a puzzling selection too as Lawrence last played a Test in 2022, when he came out against the West Indies at the St George's Park.
Many were expecting that Keaton Jennings, though an opener, would get drafted into the squad in place of Brook.
Jennings had recently made a free-flowing 154 and a 64 for England Lions against India A in the first of the four-day unofficial Test' in Ahmedabad.
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Mere breakup not enough for abetment to suicide: Delhi HC
New Delhi (PTI): Merely breaking up may not amount to instigation for a case of abetment of suicide under the criminal law, the Delhi High Court has said.
Justice Manoj Jain made the observation while dealing with a bail plea by a man accused of abetting the suicide of his former partner, who hanged herself five days after his marriage to another woman.
Granting bail to the accused, the court observed that the instigation should be of such a nature that leaves the deceased with no option but to commit suicide.
It said only a trial would establish whether the deceased's "extreme step" was on account of provocation, instigation, "merely on account of her being hyper-sensitive girl" or for some other reason.
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In the present case, the court noted, there was no dying declaration, and the parties were in a relationship for around eight years, during which there was no complaint from the deceased.
The court observed there was a considerable time gap between the date when the parties stopped talking and the date of the suicide.
"Apparently, it seems to be a case of a broken relationship and quite possibly, the deceased, having come to know that the applicant has got married to someone else, has chosen to finish herself," the court said in the order passed on February 24.
"Though broken relationship and heartbreaks have become common these days, mere breaking-up of relationship may not per se constitute instigation so as to make it to be a case of abetment under Section 108 BNS (abetment of suicide)," the court order read.
According to the father of the deceased, his daughter had been trapped by the accused, who pressured her to convert to his religion for marriage, and it was under such pressure that his daughter committed suicide by hanging herself with a chunni in October 2025.
The accused was arrested in November 2025.
The court observed that, according to the woman's friends, she was upset, and they never claimed anything on conversion. The accused had stopped talking to her from February 2025 onwards, it said.
According to the order, the man was let out on bail on a personal bond and surety bond of Rs 25,000 each.
The accused submitted that the parties were in a cordial relationship for around eight years, but the woman's parents were against the relationship since they belonged to different religions.
He alleged that it was her parents who forced her to sever the relationship.
