Even before the start of the eagerly awaited Ashes series, visitors England have gone to a concerned frenzy after yet another decent bowler in their squad, Jake Ball sustained an injury during England’s first tour game against a Cricket Australia XI at the Adelaide.
He appeared to lose his footing on his delivery stride and turned his right ankle while attempting to deliver the 5th ball of his 4th over. He fell awkwardly and clasped his head immediately as other teammates gathered around him. The physio immediately sprinted out in the middle to give him medical assistance.
Ball despite the injury got up himself and left the ground unaided. England confirmed that he has suffered a sprain and will sit out for the rest of the game and will receive icing in the area to help him recover in time for the opening Test scheduled to start in Brisbane from November 23.
England has been pegged back by a series of injuries, and before the start of the oldest rivalry in cricket, English skipper Joe Root will be a worried man as far as his bowling stocks are concerned.
Ben Stokes and Toby Roland Jones are at home. While Stokes is awaiting a police investigation on a roadside brawl outside a Bristol nightclub, Jones has sustained an injury and is yet to recover from it. Mark Wood is also not fit enough to be considered for selection. Tom Curran has been brought in as a replacement of Steven Finn who suffered an injury yesterday.
The injury concerns in the England camp are such that they had to enlist the fielding coach and former batsman Paul Collingwood to join their 12 man bench. Collingwood joined the likes of Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali as Gary Balance was also on the field in place of Ball.
Collingwood has looked in good touch and has scored 1087 runs for Durham in the County Championship last year, and jokes have started to surface that he might have merited a place in the squad as a player anyway.
