England are set to ask the ICC for extra winners medals for Jonny Bairstow and Reece Topley after both players were named in their original T20 World Cup squad before being ruled out with freak injuries.
Bairstow broke his leg in three places and dislocated his ankle while playing golf the day the squad was announced, while Topley suffered an ankle ligament injury after getting his spikes caught in the plastic coating on an advertising 'Toblerone' before England's final warm-up game against Pakistan.
"I'll tell you now Reece Topley was a big part of our preparations for this tournament," England white-ball coach Matthew Mott said. "I thought he was the outstanding bowler of last summer and I was absolutely gutted for him because it was such an innocuous looking injury.
"Seeing him leave the group was hard because he had put so much in and we had him down for some very important overs in this World Cup. Reece is going to play a massive role in this group over the next couple of years.
"Him and Jonny were the first blokes I thought of after we won because to work so hard and then miss this opportunity is heart-breaking." Topley returned home after being ruled out of the tournament and made light of his absence on Instagram.
The left-arm seamer posted an image of him standing in front of a billboard in Shoreditch celebrating England's win with the caption: "Managed to get in the team photo".
Bairstow, meanwhile, said he "couldn't be happier" after the win and is "immensely proud to be part of this white-ball generation" which now holds both the 50-over and T20 World Cups simultaneously.
"I couldn't be happier for the lads," Bairstow wrote in a column for the Times. "It is an amazing achievement to be the first men's team to hold both World Cups together.
"I'm obviously gutted that I was not there, but I am also immensely proud to be part of this white-ball generation, which has turned England into such a dominating force in world cricket. I know from previous experience that it won't have been a quiet night of celebration, for sure."
