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England captain Eoin Morgan has been ruled out of the remaining two ODIs against India due to injury. He sustained a split webbing between his thumb and index finger during the series opener on Tuesday (March 23).
Wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler will take over the reins, with Liam Livingstone set to make his debut.
Middle-order batsman Sam Billings, who has a bruised collar bone, will miss the second ODI, with a decision on his fitness for the third and last match to be taken in due course.
Meanwhile, Dawid Malan has been added to the English squad as a like-for-like replacement of Morgan and could come in the final XI as well.
Eoin Morgan declares himself unfit
The Irish-born cricketer first went through a fielding drill on Thursday evening at the MCA Stadium in Pune and then declared himself unfit.
“I had the hand re-dressed before the start of training today but it quickly became apparent that I found myself protecting the injury and getting into the wrong positions to catch the ball,” ECB’s website quoted Morgan as saying.
“There’s nowhere to hide on the field in international cricket these days, especially in limited-over formats so it didn’t require any great thought to make myself unavailable.
“It was a freak injury and it’s extremely frustrating but there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s now just a case of letting the cut heal. I have every confidence in Jos and the rest of the squad coping without me.”
