Captain Eoin Morgan appears unlikely to play all three ODIs on England’s tour of the Netherlands, which begins in Amsterdam tomorrow.
Morgan, 35, has struggled with injury in recent times and the first two matches come in the span of just three days. The third is on Wednesday, a day before the third Test against New Zealand at Headingley.
Morgan has played three matches for Middlesex in this year’s Vitality Blast, but has a policy of not playing on successive days to protect his body. He suffered an injury on England’s white-ball tour of the Caribbean in January, and another during the Blast.
Jos Buttler is the likeliest candidate to step in as skipper, but Moeen Ali has also done the job in the past and been name-dropped by Morgan as another possible successor.
New head coach Matthew Mott says he believes Morgan stepping down is “a long way off” yet.
"It's something that Morgs and I have already discussed: he always says he wants to be picked as a batter in that team on form and merit all the way through, and when he feels that's not the case then he would step aside," Mott said. "I think that's a long way off being at that point.”
England have a small squad of 13 on tour, including five left-arm seamers and a series of all-rounders such as Moeen and Sam Curran.
ODI regulars Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Ben Stokes are absent on Test duty, while the likes of Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes are out injured.
That should see opportunities for seamer Brydon Carse, as well as the uncapped left-armers Luke Wood, of Lancashire, and Gloucestershire’s David Payne.
