England vs South Africa: A day after Harry Brook's public backing, Sonny Baker is surprisingly dropped from the XI at Lord's

The first ODI of the ongoing three-match series between England and South Africa at Headingley was a disastrous outing for the home side. Put into bat, England's innings lasted just 24.3 overs as they crashed to a seven-wicket defeat with 29.1 overs left in the game. The entire match lasted just 45.3 overs and debutant Sonny Baker faced the brunt of humiliation with the ball as he conceded 76 off his seven overs.

It was baptism by fire for the youngster who has been rated highly in England's domestic circuit. However, like the rest of his teammates in the game, Baker got taken to the cleaners. Many felt that skipper Harry Brook shouldn't have given him more overs after the erratic start to his spell. Regardless, Brook was full of support for Baker in the post-match presentation and insisted that the think tank would continue to back the youngster despite the chastening experience on debut.

"Everybody will get behind him (Baker)," Brook said.

"That's the nature of this group. We are such a tight-knit group. We're all good mates. We spend a lot of time away from the game together as well.

"He's had a tough day, but the way that he just kept on cracking on and digging deep, to keep on running in and try and get wickets there for us, even after getting a little bit of tap, was awesome to see. And that's exactly what we asked of every bowler."

Surprisingly, Baker was omitted from England's playing XI for the second ODI against South Africa at Lord's on Thursday (September 4). The think tank opted to bring in Saqib Mahmood in place of Baker to strengthen the pace attack for the fixture. Whether the move was tactical or purely a reaction to Baker's debut horrors, only time will tell.