Injury concerns to Moeen Ali and Steven Finn overshadowed England’s first attempt at middle-practice at the start of their Ashes tour.
Both will undergo scans in Perth on Friday afternoon after reporting discomfort during the session at Richardson Park.
Finn’s injury was sustained while batting in the nets. He either hit his left knee with the bat or squeezed the ball into the knee and was forced to hobble out of the training session.
But it is the prospect of injury to Moeen that will most concern England. Moeen complained of a sore left side and, as a consequence, did not take part in the training sessions and has already been ruled out of the two-day warm-up game England are scheduled to play in Perth over the weekend.
With Ben Stokes also out of action, England can ill-afford to lose another of their allrounders.
While it is premature to suggest Moeen could be an injury doubt for the Brisbane Test – there are more than three weeks until the series begins and the whispers around the tour party suggest the scan is largely precautionary – it does enforce the suspicion that England’s squad may require more depth in spin-bowling before the series is over.
The only other spinner in England’s Ashes squad is Mason Crane. While he is highly rated and showed impressive composure in his first couple of international matches (two T20s against South Africa), England may well be reluctant to give a 20-year-old legspinner his Test debut as the only spinner in the opening encounter of an away Ashes series.
That could mean the England management may consider calling-up reinforcements. Jack Leach, the Somerset left-arm spinner who has been named in the Lions squad that arrives in Australia in two weeks, would probably be the most obvious candidate, though he does not come close to replicating Moeen’s ability with the bat. Liam Dawson, who has played three Tests over the last year, might be considered a more like-for-like replacement, while Samit Patel continues to excel at domestic level and could be considered.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo