Injuries will force England to make more changes than they would have liked for their upcoming ODI tours of Pakistan and Australia. They have lost Jos Buttler to a hamstring injury, Jacob Bethell, who is recovering from a knee injury, Sam Curran, recovering from groin surgery, and Adil Rashid, who picked up a hand injury during the T20I leg of the Sri Lanka series.
England get chance to test bench strength
But England’s white-ball head coach Brendon McCullum has chosen to view the bright side of this adversity. This idea might have sprouted in his mind after Jordan Cox made sure England did not miss Jos Buttler at the Oval. Playing only his fourth ODI and first since 2024, Cox put on a commanding 76 off 52 balls before doing wonders behind the stumps. He caught two batters behind the wicket and managed his first List A stumping.
England have got a chance to test their bench strength as they build up towards the ODI World Cup next year.
“I thought it was quite a Jos Buttler innings today,” McCullum said, after Cox’s 76 off 52 balls at The Oval. “He will get the opportunity in Pakistan, which is exciting for him. Whilst it’s disappointing not to have Jos, it’s going to be good for us to see where we’re at, because between now and 14 months’ time, lots of things are going to go wrong.”
While Buttler has already been ruled out of both the Pakistan tour and the Australia tour following it, McCullum is hopeful to have Curran and Rashid back before they travel to Asia. But he would rather ‘catastrophise’ the injury situation that England find themselves in rather than just being complacent with getting the regulars back.
“There’s going to be lots of selections that you think would happen, and teams that you think will be the best teams to play against opposition, but someone will get injured or there’ll be a scheduling situation. You have to almost catastrophise these things a little bit in order to prepare yourself as best as possible for that World Cup in 14 months.”
England to manage fast bowlers carefully
England will also be careful with their fast bowlers in their assignments leading up to the World Cup and the Ashes, especially the all-format bowlers including Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue. This could see them missing T20I games to focus more on ODIs and Tests.
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