Jacob Bethell’s Champions Trophy in doubt after hamstring injury has ruled him out of the ongoing India ODI series.
Jacob Bethell’s Champions Trophy participation hangs in the balance as a hamstring injury rules him out of the India series.
Bethell had been one of England’s better performers in the first ODI at Nagpur when he scored a 50 on debut with the bat. He also took the wicket of Shreyas Iyer with the ball as England eventually lost that game.
Somerset’s Tom Banton has been draughted in as cover, and he will be in India on Monday. The visitors had to use assistant coaches Marcus Trescothick and Paul Collingwood as sub-fielders in Cuttack since keeper-batter Jamie Smith was still healing from a calf injury.
The severity of Bethell’s injury will be determined in the days ahead, but he has to act quickly because England’s Champions Trophy campaign against Australia in Lahore begins in less than two weeks. Given that Smith, the wicketkeeper for Surrey, is participating in Sunday’s warm-ups, there is hope for his rehabilitation. The 15-man squad’s replacements must be announced before February 12.
In contrast, Tom Banton, who earned the final of his 20 white-ball caps in August 2020, has an opportunity to rekindle his international career. Even though he has only managed three fifty-plus runs in four ODIs and sixteen T20Is for England thus far, he is now dominating the competition’s batting charts and is in excellent form following an outstanding ILT20.
The 26-year-old scored 493 runs, including two hundreds, in 11 games for MI Emirates as the team advanced to the Eliminator stage before losing to Sharjah Warriors.