London [UK]: England limited-overs skipper Eoin Morgan on Friday injured his left index finger during training practice in Southampton.
Morgan will undergo an X-ray in hospital, ESPN Cricinfo reported.
The skipper, widely regarded as England’s finest limited-overs skipper, took a blow to his finger while preparing for England’s warm-up match against Australia on Saturday.
Early indications from England camp highlight that the scan is purely precautionary. If Morgan ends up missing few matches of the World Cup, it can be considered as a big blow to the team’s hopes of lifting the World Cup trophy for the very first time.
The 32-year-old has been exceptional in changing the team’s fortunes in the ODI format. He along with coach Trevor Bayliss, changed the team’s attitude in the white-ball format, taking them to number one position in the ODI format.
Joe Denly, who was omitted from England’s final 15-man squad last week, is the standby batsman if an injury replacement is required.
Morgan at the time of the unveiling of England’s team kit earlier this week, highlighted how the team had put in contingency plans to cope with unexpected setbacks.
“We’ve planned for instances when the team culture had been tested or individually we’d been tested. There’s still loads of things that we’ve planned for that might continue to crop up throughout the World Cup,” Morgan said.
“I wouldn’t say it’s been smooth, I’d say we’ve been better equipped at dealing with anything that’s cropped up, certainly as a group. Our prep and planning has been excellent and the guys have responded to that by performing on a consistent basis,” he added.
England recently made three changes from their preliminary World Cup squad. In the final squad, Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, and James Vince were added in place of David Willey, Joe Denly and Alex Hales.
The team’s 15-man squad for World Cup: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
England will take on Australia and Afghanistan in the warm-up matches before the World Cup on May 25 and 27.
The 50-over World Cup will take place in England and Wales from May 30 to July 14. England will take on South Africa in the opening match of the tournament on May 30.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]