London: England all-rounder Sam Curran has been ruled out of the ongoing IPL 2021 and the upcoming men’s T20 World Cup with a lower-back injury, the England & Wales Cricket Board confirmed Tuesday.
Sam’s brother Tom Curran has been drafted into the England squad as his replacement and Reece Topley has also been added as a travelling reserve. The 23 year-old Sam, playing for Chennai Super Kings, complained of pain in his back after the match against Rajasthan Royals at Abu Dhabi Saturday. He did not bat and leaked 55 runs in his four overs in the game.
The scans later revealed the nature of his injury and ruled him out of the marquee international tournament that begins October 17.
“Results of the scan revealed the injury. He (Sam Curran) will fly back to the UK in the next couple of days and will have further scans and a full review later this week from the ECB’s medical team,” the ECB said in a statement.
It was only his second outing in the UAE leg of the IPL 2021. Overall, in nine IPL games this season, Curran took nine wickets at an economy of 9.93 and scored 56 runs from four innings.
Meanwhile, his brother Tom is yet to feature in the second leg of the IPL for Royals. However, he is coming off a decent outing in the Hundred, picking up 10 wickets in eight matches for Oval Invincibles.
Members of the England team that are currently participating in the IPL will link-up with the World Cup squad in the UAE. The non-IPL members and support staff arrived in Muscat earlier on Tuesday for a short camp.
England, the 2010 champions, will begin their quest for a second T20 title with a warm-up fixture against India in Dubai October 18. In the Super 12 phase of the tournament, they are grouped alongside Australia, South Africa and defending champions West Indies.
Squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Tymal Mills, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Travelling Reserves, Liam Dawson, Reece Topley, James Vince