England sweat over Roy

Roy may be sidelined for the first ODI against South Africa

Roy may be sidelined for the first ODI against South Africa

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

England will be anxiously waiting to find out whether opening batsman Jason Roy will be fit for the first ODI against South Africa in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.

Roy suffered a back spasm while warming up for a training session on Monday and will be required to undergo a fitness test on Tuesday.

Should Roy be ruled out, England are likely to promote James Taylor or Moeen Ali to the opening spot.

Meanwhile, South Africa have brought in all-rounder David Wiese as a replacement for Albie Morkel for the first two ODIs as the latter is also suffering from back spasms.

Despite this, South Africa all-rounder JP Duminy is confident that his side can bounce back from their 2-1 loss in the recently concluded Test series.

“I don’t think we’re weakened. I think the replacements are good enough to stand in for those players,” he said. “It’s not an interruption in any way for us. We know what’s needed as a squad and it’s important for us to stay unified as a team, no matter who the personnel are.

“The confidence from the one-day cricket point of view has been pretty good. We’ve won our last two series. But we know this is a tough challenge that faces us and that England have also been playing really well in this format.”

The Proteas have also brought in pace bowler Marchant de Lange as Dale Steyn has been ruled out of the series with a shoulder injury, while Kyle Abbott is nursing a hamstring injury.

“Marchant gives us more options with our fast bowlers because there is no Steyn, no [Vernon] Philander, no Abbott,” South Africa head coach Russell Domingo said. “The big concern is the fact that Kagiso Rabada and Morkel have played a lot of cricket of late and have bowled so many overs, we need to manage them over the next few days.”

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