Jos Buttler Ruled Out Of Rest Of The Limited-Overs Series Against Sri Lanka; Dawid Malan Named Replacement For ODIs

England white-ball vice-captain Jos Buttler has been ruled out of the 3^rd T20I and the remainder of the white-ball series against Sri Lanka after suffering from a calf strain during the first T20I match on Wednesday.

Buttler will now be returning home to commence his rehabilitation. The wicketkeeper-batsman scored an unbeaten 68 opening the batting in the first T20I. As per ECB, he “felt tightness and discomfort” at the end of the game and was sent for an MRI scan on Thursday morning, which revealed a small tear. He sat out the second T20I, which England won by five wickets.

Dawid Malan Added To ODI Squad As Replacement

With England suggesting that they might use the Sri Lankan series to experiment a bit with their playing XI, it is expected that Jonny Bairstow will up to open in Buttler’s absence – although he made a three-ball duck as England initially struggled in their chase of 112. Liam Livingstone, whose unbeaten 29 helped secure victory, regularly opens in T20 cricket and could also deputize.

Meanwhile, the ECB added no.1 ranked T20I batsman Dawid Malan to the ODI squad as a replacement for Jos Buttler. The third T20I will be played in Southampton on June 6 and then the two teams will meet in series of three ODI matches, beginning from June 29, as the first match will be played in Chester-Le-Street.

With Jos Buttler being ruled out of the ODI series as well, Jonny Bairstow and Sam Billings will be in contention to keep wickets in the three ODI matches. Billings had scored his maiden ODI hundred last summer and would have been in contention for a middle-order berth, whether Buttler was available or not.

“In terms of ODIs I had a really good summer last year and averaged 83 in that format so I would be pretty disappointed if I didn’t get a gig but this team is a very hard one to get into to,” he said.

England Full Squad for the Sri Lanka ODIs:

Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonathan Bairstow (WK), Sam Billings (WK), Dawid Malan, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, George Garton, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

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