Eoin Morgan ruled out of India ODIs due to injury, Jos Buttler set to captain England

England captain Eoin Morgan will miss the final two ODIs of the ongoing series against India in Pune due to injury. Whereas Sam Billings will be unavailable for second ODI against India on Friday, with a decision on his availability for Sunday’s final match to be taken in due course. 

Jos Buttler is set to captain England in Morgan’s absence and explosive batsman Liam Livingstone will make his ODI debut. 

Morgan will miss out after sustaining a split webbing between his thumb and index finger in Tuesday’s series opener, an injury that required four stitches. 

The captain went through a fielding drill during training at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Thursday and afterwards declared himself unfit. 

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Morgan said: “I had the hand re-dressed before the start of training today but it quickly became apparent that I found myself protecting the injury and getting into the wrong positions to catch the ball. 

“There’s nowhere to hide on the field in international cricket these days, especially in limited-over formats so it didn’t require any great thought to make myself unavailable. 

“It was a freak injury and it’s extremely frustrating but there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s now just a case of letting the cut heal. I have every confidence in Jos and the rest of the squad coping without me.” 

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Billings did not train on Thursday after he suffered a bruised left collar bone while fielding in Tuesday’s opening match, and the injury remained sore on Thursday. 

Dawid Malan, with the tour party as cover, has been drafted into the squad and is available for selection. 

Earlier, the BCCI confirmed that Shreyas Iyer has been ruled out of the ODI series against England after suffering a shoulder injury.

India lead the three-ODI series 1-0 after a thumping 66-run win against England and would be looking to seal the series on Friday.