Harry Brook should be straight in England team, not carrying drinks - Chris Waters

“Naughty cat. No KatKin for you tonight…”

Equally, albeit on a lesser scale perhaps, one’s joy at being chosen in a Test squad for the first time would be tempered rather if it was basically to go and carry the drinks.

Whether that fate awaits Yorkshire’s Harry Brook remains to be seen, but certainly the indications after he was named in a 13-man squad to face New Zealand at Lord’s from June 2 and at Trent Bridge from June 10 were that he has been picked as the spare batsman.

If that is the case it is patently absurd.

Brook is the leading run-scorer in Division One of the County Championship with 758 at an average of 151.60.

He is playing as well as, if not better than, Joe Root at present.

Brook’s scores this season are: 101, 56 not out, 84, 77 not out, 194, 123, 41 and 82 not out.

To not play a man in such form and who is scoring his runs with such obvious panache would be an oversight.

However, Rob Key, the managing director for England men’s cricket, has said that Ollie Pope will move up to No 3 (he has never batted there in first-class cricket) and Jonny Bairstow will slot in at No 5, which would mean no place for Brook, with Root confirmed at No 4 and Ben Stokes at No 6.

Of course, it could all turn out to be a devilish hoax and Brook might play after all; or, as has been known to happen in professional sport from time to time, someone could get injured or fall ill to open up a place.

But the England and Wales Cricket Board has now apparently devalued the County Championship to the point where not even its palpably best performing batsman at present is a shoo-in for the Test team.

All that can be said in that case is that England must have one heck of a Test team if Brook doesn’t play, although the last time I checked they had won only one of their last 17 games.

What of Matty Potts, I hear you cry? England have picked the uncapped Durham pace bowler, after all.

Aye, but England have got even more injuries in their bowling department than Yorkshire at present; their hand, if not forced, has certainly been steered for them, and the new Test captain is his county team-mate, which no doubt helps.

An England team without Bairstow is like an afternoon without sunshine, a depressing prospect, so this column has no issue with that decision despite the fact that Bairstow has had no red-ball cricket lately due to his involvement at the Indian Premier League.

But why not Brook at No 5 and Bairstow at No 7 as the wicketkeeper/batsman in place of Ben Foakes? One wonders, too, what Matt Parkinson, the Lancashire leg-spinner, has to do to get a look-in: he has taken 23 wickets in four Championship games this year at 23.47.

For all the talk of a brave new world under Key and head coach Brendon McCullum, it can be considered only that for the time being – talk.

Of course, let’s give both men a chance – they have hardly had time to wave goodbye to Tom Harrison, the chief executive who leaves with few good wishes and a whopping fat bonus.

But no Dawid Malan either? The Yorkshire batsman is the third-leading run-scorer in Division One and although he is out of the game against Warwickshire at Clean Slate HQ this week to rest his Achilles, which often gives him gyp, is there a better No 3 for the Test XI?

It is all a matter of opinion, of course, but one might have expected something a little better, a little bolder, a little more enterprising and ambitious to kick off the new era.

Pope, for example, is a very fine player, but he has had more chances now than the real Pope has handed out communion wafers. In 40 Test innings he has made one hundred and averages 28.

There is only so long before potential needs to be turned into consistent results. Perhaps it will be this summer. Let’s hope so.

I would pick Brook, though, not just for the volume of his runs or the size of his average, but because he simply looks the part as a future Test player. His defence, his strokeplay, his temperament, his attitude.

Why, isn’t it obvious?

England squad for opening Test v New Zealand at Lord’s, June 2-6: Anderson, Bairstow, Broad, Brook, Crawley, Foakes, Leach, Lees, C Overton, Potts, Pope, Root, Stokes (captain).