England captain Eoin Morgan will miss the last two one-day internationals against India, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced Thursday.
Morgan has been ruled out after sustaining a split webbing between his thumb and index finger of the right hand during a 66-run defeat by India in Tuesday’s series opener, an injury that required four stitches.
The batsman went through a fielding drill during training at the MCA Stadium on Thursday and afterwards declared himself unfit.
Jos Buttler will captain 50-over world champions England in Morgan’s absence, with Liam Livingstone set to make his ODI debut in Friday’s second match of the series. Dawid Malan, with the tour party as cover, has been drafted into the squad and is available for selection, the ECB added.
“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,” said Morgan in an ECB statement.
“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,” the 2019 World Cup-winning captain added.
“It was a freak injury and it’s extremely frustrating but there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s now just a case of letting the cut heal.”
“I have every confidence in Jos and the rest of the squad coping without me.”
India too are facing injury concerns. Shreyas Iyer’s dislocated shoulder has ruled him out of the ODIs (and reportedly for IPL 2021 as well) and is likely to bring another debut for Suryakumar Yadav. There are concerns around Rohit Sharma’s elbow as well for the hosts.
(With AFP and PTI inputs)