England's 20-20 World Cup campaign has hit a massive road bump as ace opener Jason Roy has been ruled out of the tournament owing to the calf injury he picked up against South Africa. The batter was in searing pain and limped off the field retired hurt after scoring 20 off 15 balls. Captain Eoin Morgan in the post-match presentation had also hinted that Roy is unlikely to take any further part in the tournament thus the news of him missing the semifinal isn’t a big surprise.
Meanwhile, James Vince has been named as the replacement of Roy. Vince had travelled with the team as a reserve player. Much like Roy, Vince is also a specialist opener. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see if Morgan brings in Vince in place of Roy or promote Jonny Bairstow as opener and bring in Sam Billings in the middle order.
Roy was devastated on the development and said he is gutted to miss out in the remaining games. However, he was confident of regaining peak fitness before the Caribbean tour next year. "I'm gutted to be ruled out of the World Cup," Roy said. "It is a bitter pill to swallow. I will be staying on to support the boys and hopefully we can go all the way and lift that trophy. It has been an unbelievable journey so far and we have to continue expressing ourselves and concentrating on us.
"The rehab has already started and even though I've torn my calf, I'm going to give myself the best chance of being ready for the T20 tour of the Caribbean at the start of next year."
England’s campaign have been marred by injuries with several key players including Ben Stokes, Jason Roy, Tymal Mills, Sam Curran missing out due to the same. Despite the losses, England have performed exceptionally well and qualified for the semis as the top-ranked team from Group A. Barring a blip against South Africa, they have been extremely good.