Eoin Morgan replacement: The English captain has been ruled out of the remaining two ODIs of the ongoing series against India.
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England captain Eoin Morgan will miss the remaining two ODIs of the ongoing England’s tour of India after injuring his hand in the first ODI in Pune.
Apart from Morgan, England batsman Sam Billings had also suffered a shoulder injury while trying to save a boundary in the deep. Billings, on the other hand, has been ruled out of the second ODI with further assessments deciding his fate before the third ODI on Sunday.
It is worth mentioning that Morgan had split the webbing of his hand at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Tuesday. Morgan, who subsequently received four stitches, did take part in a practice session today after which he declared himself unfit to play.
“I had the hand re-dressed before the start of training today but it quickly became apparent that I found myself protecting the injury and getting into the wrong positions to catch the ball.
“There’s nowhere to hide on the field in international cricket these days, especially in limited-over formats so it didn’t require any great thought to make myself unavailable,” Morgan said in a statement published on England Cricket’s website.
Eoin Morgan replacement
With a couple of batsmen getting ruled out, England have drafted batsman Dawid Malan into the squad. Alongside the likes of Chris Jordan and Jake Ball, Malan was the third reserve player travelling with the ODI squad.
Batsman Liam Livingstone, who was originally part of the 14-member squad, is all but certain of making an ODI debut tomorrow. With the remaining players in the squad being specialist bowlers in Reece Topley and Matt Parkinson, there is a strong possibility that England will include both Livingstone and Malan in their XI for the second ODI.
Eoin Morgan out of the remaining ODIs in India due to split webbing in hand. Sam Billings out of second match due to collar bone injury. Liam Livingstone to make debut and Dawid Malan added to squad
— Ali Martin (@Cricket_Ali) March 25, 2021
Contrary to Livingstone, Malan had made his ODI debut against Ireland in 2019. Having scored a half-century in the fifth T20I in Ahmedabad, the southpaw would want to take confidence from that innings last week ahead of his second ODI appearance for England. Meanwhile, England white-ball vice-captain Jos Buttler will lead England for the seventh time in ODIs on Friday.
