England's left-arm seamer David Willey has been ruled out of the England's ODI series against Pakistan. Willey suffered a hand injury during the T20 Blast Finals Day yesterday. Nottinghamshire's Jake Ball has been named as a replacement.
The all-rounder was struck on the hand by a scorching drive from Mark Stoneman in his second over against Durham. However, Willey stayed on and completed his quota of overs and then walked out to open the innings. But his pain was evident as he could not quite get the timing right on any of his strokes.
The ECB has released a statement that further scans will be made, and that a significant injury is not entirely out of the question.
This will impact the England's team combination as Willey had become an important cog in the ODI scheme of things and has played in 18 ODI matches and 11 T20s. He has picked up 29 wickets in One Day Internationals at an average of 27.82. He is a genuine swing bowler and more often than not picks up vital wickets at the top of the order. Also, he is a lower order batsman who is capable of hitting few lusty blows late in the innings, and thus his exclusion will pose few selection issues for the team management.
Jake Ball has had quite an eventful couple of months, as he was handed his maiden Test cap against Pakistan in the first Test match at Lord's. This is his maiden ODI call-up after he was impressive in with the white ball in the NatWest T20 blast.
The 5-match ODI series will start on August 24 and promises to be a keenly-contested affair after the Test series was shared 2-2.
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