England captain Eoin Morgan drops selection hint ahead of New Zealand clash

England go into the match against the Black Caps having won four of their five Super 12 matches, with their only loss coming in a tight encounter on Saturday against South Africa in Sharjah. 

Morgan’s team were dealt a major blow during Saturday’s defeat when star opening batter Jason Roy pulling up with a calf injury, with scans ruling him out for the remainder of the tournament. 

Hampshire batter James Vince has been called up to the 15-man squad as a replacement for Roy, while wicket-keeper batsman Sam Billings could also come into the XI.

However, Morgan has since hinted that an extra bowler could be played depending on conditions in Abu Dhabi, giving hope to left-arm seamers Reece Topley and David Willey, as well as Surrey pace bowler Tom Curran. 

‘Replacing him [Roy] with another bowler would mean that you’d have 28 genuine overs on the field, and a lot of options,’ Morgan said. ‘If you were to go with a batter, it would mean a like-for-like replacement.

‘When we turn up and look at the wicket, depending if it’s a really good batting wicket or predicting if going to be a really good wicket, you might need the extra bit of bowling, and if it’s not, we might need an extra bit of batting.’

Without Roy, England will have to find someone to partner the in-form Jos Buttler at the top of the innings, with Morgan suggesting that the decision has already been made.

‘Within the group, we’ve made a decision,’ Morgan said. ‘I’m not willing to share that unfortunately but the balance of the side will be determined on how the wicket looks and how we match-up against the Black Caps.

‘I don’t think it is [a difficult call to have made]. I think we’re blessed with guys who can bat at the top of the order and actually want to bat at the top of the order.

‘If you look around the highest run-scorers, the big-name players, they all want to bat or are batting in the top three in every team.

‘We’re lucky we have guys that queue up and want to bat in the top three, which is great because they want to go head-to-head with the big-name players in the tournament – they want to go head-to-head with the big-name bowlers in the opposition. I think we’re in a very lucky position that we have a number of guys to choose from.’

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