England opener Jason Roy is a major injury doubt going into their deciding ODI against India at Headingley.
The 27-year-old has only been given a 30% chance of being fit and would be a massive loss for the hosts due to registering 50-run partnerships at the top of the order alongside Jonny Bairstow in both games in the series so far.
Roy sat out training on Monday after sustaining an injury to his right little finger when attempting to catch Indian batsman Suresh Raina in the 2nd ODI at Lords.
Jason Roy injury concern
Eoin Morgan’s side are already missing Nottinghamshire batsman Alex Hales who was ruled out of the entire series with a side injury and have released Middlesex batsman Dawid Malan and Surrey all-rounder Sam Curran to play for the England Lions against India A as part of their preparation for the upcoming Test match series.
Hampshire captain James Vince was called into the squad on Sunday and may well come straight into the side to replace Roy. Vince has played just the five ODIs for his country where he has scored 104 runs at an average of 26, including one half-century.
In this season’s domestic 50-over competition, the Royal London One Day Cup, Vince’s Hampshire won the competition and Vince was the third-highest scorer in the tournament, making 527 runs at an average 58.55 in nine innings, including two centuries.
As far as replacements go, Vince is certainly in form in the 50-over format but brings a completely different dynamic to a side than Roy does. While the Surrey man is a destructive, powerful force in white-ball cricket, Vince relies more on touch, timing and placement than brute power so it will be interesting to see how he fits into this England side should Roy in fact be unfit to play.
For India, their only expected change is the return of seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar who missed the deciding IT20 and opening two ODIs with a stiff back. Siddarth Kaul is expected to make way.
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