Thursday went from bad to worse for England as in-form Alex Hales has been ruled out of the remained of the India-England ODI series with a side strain. It is reported that he might be out of action for three or four weeks. Dawid Malan has been called up as replacement for the batsman.
The harrowing defeat against India in the opening ODI will add to the pain for the English team management as Hales looked in fine touch in the previous ODI series against Australia and hit a magnificent 92-ball 147 at the very ground where he pulled his side during practice on Wednesday.
In fact, Hales was the man in control when England chased down India’s total of 148 in the second T20I of the series in Cardiff on July 6. Coming out to bat after Jos Buttler’s rare poor show, Hales hit an unbeaten 58 off 41 balls on a slightly difficult wicket to help England level the series with a 5-wicket win.
Speaking at the toss on Thursday, England skipper Eoin Morgan had already revealed that Hales was going for scans in the afternoon. “Unfortunate, Alex has done his side. How long he is out we don't know. He is going for a scan this afternoon which brings Dawid Malan into the squad. With that change Joe Root goes up to 3 and Stokes at 5 which means we are where we were last summer around this time,” he had said.
However, it will be interesting to see how Morgan reworks the batting order going into the second game after Kuldeep Yadav spun a web around them in the first ODI.
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