Injured Ali, Finn ruled out of Adelaide pink ball game
INJURED England bowlers Moeen Ali and Steven Finn have been ruled out of the pink-ball tour match against a Cricket Australia XI today.
Ali (side strain) and Finn (knee) won’t play in the fourday Adelaide Oval fixture as English coach Trevor Bayliss ponders gaps in his likely Ashes team.
Bayliss says he’s uncertain about one batting spot and another fast bowling option for the first Test against Australia starting on November 23.
“We have probably got a batting spot to finalise and probably a fourth pace position — so there’s a little bit of competition from within, which is good,” Bayliss said yesterday.
Paceman Finn’s status is uncertain after he, like Ali, missed England’s tour opener in Perth because of injury.
“Finn is still not right,” Bayliss said. “We won’t know about him for another couple of days yet.
“Mo Ali . . . more precautionary now, we will just leave him out of this one and make sure he’s right.”
After the Adelaide fixture England has another four-day tour game in Townsville from November 15 before the first Test in Brisbane.
Bayliss said the immediate focus was on gathering intelligence from the Adelaide game, a day-nighter with a pink ball, ahead of the second Test in the South Australian capital under similar conditions.
England has played only one day-night Test — a loss to the West Indies last August.
That Test was played with Duke brand balls, and Bayliss is eager to monitor the behaviour of the Australian-made Kookaburra.
The Duke played unpredictably. “The bowlers weren’t sure which way it was going. They were trying to move it one way and it would . . . go the other way,” he said.