Tammy Beaumont to lead England in 3rd T20i vs India after regular captain Nat Sciver-Brunt suffers groin injury.
Tammy Beaumont stands in as captain after Sciver-Brunt suffers groin injury.
After suffering a groin strain during her team’s 24-run loss in Bristol on Tuesday, England’s skipper, Nat Sciver-Brunt, has been ruled out of Friday’s third Twenty20 International against India at the Kia Oval and may miss the rest of the five-match series.
For the first time in her 247-match international career, Tammy Beaumont will take over as captain. Sciver-Brunt will need additional scans to determine the extent of the injury. Her official vice-captain, Sophia Dunkley, took over for her over the most of Tuesday’s match after she was forced to leave the pitch. But for now, Beaumont’s more extensive experience has been needed as England trails 2-0 in the series with three games left.
“It’s real pride and honour to have the captain’s armband tomorrow, albeit in difficult circumstances,” Beaumont said. “Charlotte [Edwards, head coach] asked to meet me this morning, and straightaway I said, ‘Yep, thank you very much, I’ll give it a good go’. I guess we need a bit of fight to come out in this series, and I’m probably someone who likes to get in a battle, so can understand why.”
Tammy Beaumont in a tough spot
In addition to hurting England’s chances of winning a series in which they have been thoroughly outplayed by their rivals, the loss also hurts their attempt to establish a new team identity following Heather Knight’s dismissal as captain earlier this year.
“The worst thing we could do right now is panic,” Beaumont said. “Obviously, it’s not the circumstances we wanted to be in. We didn’t want to be 2-0 down, and we didn’t want our captain and best batter to be out of the team. But we’re here where we are, and that’s what we’ve got to do.
“We’ve got to try and bring some calm to it, and some rationale, some logic. We certainly believe we can come back and win this. Full credit to India. They’ve challenged us. They’ve pushed us so far, but I hope that we can respond, and I’m certainly intending on getting the girls to try and respond to what’s happened so far.”