Shrubsole ruled out of England's T20 opener on Friday

England have been jolted by a shoulder injury to their frontline pace bowler Anya Shrubsole, who will sit out their tri-series opener against Australia on Friday. During England’s second warm-up match against India A on March 20, Shrubsole fell awkwardly on her right shoulder while taking a catch and sustained a minor sprain.

On Thursday afternoon, Shrubsole was spotted sporting a sling during the team’s training. For much of the length of the nets session, she kept coach Mark Robinson company as the duo oversaw the proceedings at the Brabourne Stadium.

Captain Heather Knight, however, was hopeful Shrubsole would recover in time to feature in their next game, against India on Sunday.

“She’s not going to be available tomorrow,” Knight said on Thursday. “But the scans show there’s no serious damage so hopefully she makes it for the next game.”

Shrubsole’s absence in England’s opening game would mean the team’s pace attack will now be without two of their leading quicks. Earlier, a back injury sustained during the Women’s Big Bash League, had ruled Katherine Brunt out of the tour.

Another high-profile exclusion from the side is that of Sarah Taylor, who was left out as a preventive measure to ensure she suffered no recurrence of the anxiety issues that caused her to take time away from the game in 2016.

The depletion of experience in the squad, however, was not lost on Knight. She exuded confidence in the way the team went about in the two warm-ups – posting totals in excess of 175 and 200 – and was particularly pleased with the way the uncapped trio in the side adapted to subcontinental conditions.

“We’ve got an inexperienced side and with that can come some inconsistency but I’m also really excited to see how we’ll go,” she said. “The new girls have been brilliant, they’ve really put their names forward for selections and that’s what we want. There’s some exciting cricketers there, Kate George is a left-arm quick, Bryony Smith at the top of the order hits the ball hard and Alice Davidson-Richards in middle order gives it a whack and is handy with the ball.”

Since England last played in India, during the 2016 World T20, and their previous T20 assignment, the multi-format Ashes, the team has gone through a transition, crowned by the glory of winning the 50-over World Cup.

Weighing in on the significance of the tri-series in the run-up to the World T20 in November, Knight said facing teams like India and Australia will provide her side an appropriate platform to measure up the strengths and weaknesses of the core as well as the younger lot coming through.

“That semi-finals in Delhi [in the World T20], that’s two years now. [It] was the making of this team, I think. We have talked about it a lot now. The changes that we’ve made following that made us the team, the team that won the World Cup. We have come a long way since that T20 series, and now we will get to see how far we have come in similar conditions,” Knight said.

“But looking forward to the [World] T20 in November, we want to take our T20 cricket to the next level. We were very successful in one-day cricket recently, but in T20 cricket, not so much. We haven’t played a lot of it in recent times, internationally. So for us, it [the tri-series] is about finding our best XI for us to be successful at the World Cup in November.”

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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