England will begin the next phase of their World Cup preparations without Jos Buttler after the former captain was ruled out of the forthcoming tour of Pakistan.
Buttler injured his hamstring mid-innings against Sri Lanka at Headingley last week, retiring hurt but later returning to the crease in clear pain.
He sat out Sunday’s Metro Bank ODI series decider at the Kia Oval, which England won at a canter by 223 runs, and has now been told he will not be fit for next month’s 50-over tri-series.
That robs the team of arguably their most accomplished white-ball player as they look to build a side capable of challenging for silverware in southern Africa next winter and there is no guarantee yet that the 36-year-old will be back for the subsequent trip to Australia in November.
“Jos won’t be in Pakistan,” limited-overs coach Brendon McCullum confirmed.
“We know he’s an incredible athlete, we know he’s supremely fit and an ultra professional, so he’ll do everything he can to get back as soon as possible but it’s hard to judge how long that will be.
“It’s disappointing not to have Jos but it will be good for us to see where we’re at. Between now and 14 months’ time lots of things will go wrong, there’ll be lots of selections you think will happen and someone will get injured or there’ll be a scheduling issue. You almost have to catastrophise these things a little to prepare yourself for that World Cup.”
In the short term, that means an extended chance for Jordan Cox as the wicketkeeper-batter. He returned to the ODI side for the first time in nearly two years against Sri Lanka and put the finishing touches to an impressive summer by steering England through the death overs with a fluent 76.
“I thought that was quite a Jos Buttler innings,” said McCullum.
“Cox will definitely get the opportunity in Pakistan. He’s done really well domestically for a number of years and he’s been unlucky with injuries when he’s been on the cusp previously.
“He’s deserved it. He’s very well liked in our dressing room and he seems to be one of those guys who is good at whatever he does, which can be incredibly annoying.
“He’s a good lad with a huge amount of runway in front of him in his career.”
England are set to finalise their squad for Pakistan in the next 24 hours, with Sam Curran pushing for a return after groin trouble and further checks to be made on Adil Rashid’s bowling hand. Jacob Bethell is still recovering from a knee problem.
For McCullum there is now a short break after a rollercoaster summer. After keeping his job as all-format head coach after a ruinous Ashes campaign, he showed a willingness to adapt his methods with a beefed-up backroom staff and a more rigorous approach to training.
He was still sacked from the Test job in the aftermath of Ben Stokes’ retirement and the series loss to New Zealand, but enters the winter programme in charge of an improving white-ball team that has won 11 out 13 games since the change.
His latest challenge for the team is to become “the fittest, fastest, most dynamic and robust cricket team out there” while he also laid out plans to bolster the touring schedule with additional warm-up matches, having scrubbed such fixtures from the calendar in his early days with the red-ball team.
Reflecting on a season of change, and looking ahead to his split coaching partnership with new Test coach Stephen Fleming, he said: “It’s been eventful. I genuinely feel right now, at the end of the summer, English cricket is certainly in a really good place.
“I loved coaching all three formats, the four years I had as Test coach was one of most enjoyable periods of my time in cricket. But things move on, times change. I think Stephen will do an unbelievable job with the Test side.
“Overall, it’s no bad thing that it sits the way it sits now.”
