Just few hours ahead of the most crucial semifinal clash against a strong Team India in the ongoing Men’s T20 World Cup, England suffered a massive setback with pacer Mark Wood unable to recover from an injury and set to miss the important affair.
As per reports in Australian media, fellow pacer Chris Jordan will now likely replace Wood in the playing eleven for the match against the Men in Blue.
Notably, both Wood and batter Dawid Malan have been struggling since the last couple of days to gain fitness for the crucial knockout clash against India. Although Malan is likely to step into the field for the semifinal, Wood may miss the affair.
Wood has been battling stiffness ahead of Thursday’s clash, his body was not helped much by the heavy workload during his 2022 campaign already been hindered by injury.
On the other hand, Malan is England’s top scorer in the ongoing tournament, having scored 242 runs in eight innings, second only to Virat Kohli in the top batters’ list of the ongoing World Cup. Wood meanwhile, has scalped nine wickets in four matches in the ongoing event.
Earlier, Malan had suffered a groin issue during the Three Lions’ win over Sri Lanka last week.
The England team management had decided to give them time till the last-minute possible to get them ready for the match.
On Wednesday, England captain Jos Buttler had said that the team’s medical staff are giving the duo all the time to get ready for the must-win clash at Adelaide Oval.
“We will try and give them as long as possible,” Buttler was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press (AAP) news agency.
“Obviously Dawid left the field the other day with a small niggle and Woody has had a bit of stiffness. But we will trust the medical team, we will trust those two guys as well. In all sports now, players don’t always play at 100 percent but of course, you have to be able to fulfil your role in the team. So we will give that as long as we can with those guys and, as always, we have 15 guys preparing to play,” Buttler said on the eve of the match.
A final call on Malan’s participation will be taken closer to the toss after a fitness test on the ground.
Significantly, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, David Willey and Phil Salt are the other four squad members available for selection.