Overton primed to step in for injured Ball
ENGLAND’S injury concerns on this Ashes tour mounted yesterday when Jake Ball broke down on the second day of their pink-ball warm-up match against a Cricket Australia XI at the Adelaide Oval.
Ball sprained his right ankle when buckling under his own weight during his fourth over of the day-night tour match. The 26-year-old was led from the field by England physio Craig de Weymarn after receiving treatment and played no further part in the innings.
Ball appeared certain to be named as the fourth seamer in England’s XI for the Ashes opener in Brisbane ahead of Craig Overton after making a positive start to the tour.
But, with less than a fortnight to go before the first Test against Australia, he now faces a race against time to prove his fitness and will almost certainly have to play in next week’s final warm-up
match in Townsville to show he is ready to take on Australia.
England are already without several fastbowling options in Ben Stokes, unavailable while still the subject of a police investigation following a late-night incident in Bristol at the end of the summer, Toby RolandJones, missing this tour with a stress fracture of the back, and Mark Wood, who has yet to prove his fitness after a succession of injuries.
Now with Ball breaking down just two days after Steven Finn was forced to return home with a tour-ending knee injury, this is the last thing the tourists needed.
Chris Woakes said: “Jake didn’t really know the extent of it, but just said it was quite sore.
“He’s been bowling nicely on this trip so far, so when you see a fellow fast bowler go off the field – particularly the way he did it, falling under himself – it’s quite frustrating for him and us as a team.
“It’s never nice to see one of the fast guys go off injured and obviously losing Finny is really sad for him, with such a big series coming up. But we have to deal with it.”
Ball’s injury meant that with Tom Curran, Finn’s replacement, yet to arrive in Adelaide and Moeen Ali out with a side strain, England had just 13 fit players yesterday.
With Stuart Broad rested, reserve wicketkeeper Ben Foakes in the nets and Gary Ballance on as a replacement for Ball, Paul Collingwood, England’s 41-year-old fielding coach who retired from Test cricket seven years ago, came on to the field for an over when James Vince went off for a comfort break.
“I wasn’t surprised,” said Woakes. “He’s still fit as a fiddle, still playing back home for Durham. He could take any of us on in a fitness challenge as well.”