London, February 09: England batsman Eoin Morgan has been ruled out of the cricket World Cup because he requires surgery on a broken finger, coach Andy Flower said on Tuesday.
Morgan, one of England’s leading one-day batsmen, suffered the injury during the one-day series in Australia. He will be replaced by Ravi Bopara in the squad for the Feb 19-April 2 tournament in India.
Andy Flower said: “Eoin Morgan won’t be going to the World Cup. He needs to be operated on. That’s a serious loss.
“But Ravi Bopara, who is an exciting young cricketer in his own right, will be joining us.”
“He injured it in that Adelaide game and didn’t think it was serious, but it got worse the more he played and practised,” Flower added.
“The pain grew worse and therefore the medical team got onto it.”
Apart from Morgan, many key players including Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan, Ajmal Shahzad, Paul Collingwood, Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett picked up injuries at various stages in the tour of Australia.
However, Andy Flower said there was “good news” regarding the majority of the injured players.
The coach was confident that Morgan’s loss will not be felt much.
“No-one is irreplaceable,” Flower said. “Ravi Bopara is a very talented and exciting player.
“He will also bring a bit of medium-pace bowling to help out the captain.
“We’re confident the 15 players we’ve got out there will gel.”
——–Agencies