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England batter Dawid Malan, who suffered an injury while fielding against Sri Lanka, will miss the second semi-final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup against India at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday. Malan limped off the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in the 15th over of the first innings after pulling up and later went for the scan.
“He is a big player and has been for a number of years. He has been one of our best players. I don’t know but it [Malan’s injury] doesn’t look great,” England vice-captain Moeen Ali was quoted as saying to BBC.
Malan is England’s best player according to the ICC rankings for batters. He was in good form leading into the 2022 T20 World Cup but has had a limited impact at the event with a score of 35 off 37 balls in the defeat against Ireland.
Who could England call on if Malan is out?
England have Phil Salt, David Willey, Chris Jordan and Tymal Mills in the reserves.
Salt would be the obvious choice from the list of four substitutes to replace Malan. Being the only batter, he is almost set to go straight into the top order.
Salt has played 11 T20Is for England and hit 88 not out – his highest score – against Pakistan in September.
England previously had to make one change to their squad with Tymal Mills replacing Reece Topley, who injured his ankle stepping on a boundary before the warm-up game against Pakistan in Brisbane. They have fielded the same XI in all five matches of the Super-12 stage.
England’s predicted XI for the semi-final clash against India:
Jos Buttler (c & wk), Alex Hales, Philip Salt, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.
