The joke going around the England dressing room after Friday’s World Cup group stage victory over West Indies was that they simply could not wait to get out of Southampton.
Nothing against the place, of course, but after last month’s warm-up against Australia turned into a scene from M*A*S*H, and now finding themselves crossing all possible body parts over the fitness of Eoin Morgan and Jason Roy, little wonder they feel it is slightly cursed.
Old Trafford comes next, with Afghanistan the opposition on Tuesday. A used pitch and mystery spin of Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman mean there are no givens. But if there was a fixture that England had to go into below full strength, it is probably against the team that is propping up the table.
Morgan and Roy had scans on their injuries on Saturday– the former having suffered a suspected back spasm, the latter a suspected left hamstring strain – and the results are should be published in the next 24 hours or so.
Three wins from four (and no washouts to date) has bought the team some wriggle room but given Afghanistan is the first of three games in 10 days one would expect caution.
Roy, who has missed seven weeks of cricket this year with a problem in the same area, is clearly the greater concern. With Alex Hales ejected before the tournament, there is a significant step down in pedigree to first reserve James Vince (as talented as he is). And so England will give their opener every chance to recover, even if solely for the knockouts that sit three weeks away.
Morgan, meanwhile, has had back spasms before and bounced back quickly. Last summer, he missed an ODI against Australia in Cardiff with the issue, but returned three days later to help England pile on their world-record 481 for six at Trent Bridge.
Still, there is little to be gained in rushing and, in Jos Buttler, Morgan has a deputy who has stepped up to lead six times previously, winning four of them.
Asked after the eight-wicket win over West Indies what difference this change of captaincy would make, Buttler said: “Hopefully not very much. I have played under Eoin for a long time. He’s a fantastic captain and he’s someone I have tried to learn from as vice-captain. We speak a lot about the game, we’ve got similar views.
“If it comes to captaining then it’s a huge honour any time you do it and from behind the stumps you have a really good view of what is going on. It’s down to you to manage and separate the two jobs. For the 10 seconds when you are a wicketkeeper, do that to the best of your ability, then outside of that allow yourself to think about the game.”
Should this scenario come to pass then Buttler said he would look to England’s Test captain, Joe Root, for support. It is, he added, a tight-knit team where opinions are generally forthcoming, though, so there will be no shortage of input from others either.
It was Root and Chris Woakes who summed up how adaptable this team has become on Friday. The former picked up two wickets with his part-time all-sorts and produced a fine unbeaten century as an emergency opener. Woakes, deployed at No 3 in order to reduce disruption to the middle order, demonstrated his prowess with 40 sensible runs in a stand of 104-run with Root.
While Vince is surely set to play, the expected replacement should Morgan not be ready, Moeen Ali, would give Buttler even more options with the ball. Afghanistan’s issues to date have chiefly been with the bat and here the dual pace of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood should provide the sternest of challenges.
Buttler said: “Their extra pace generates opportunities. But you have to credit their skill level too, not just their pace. Pace without that can be an advantage to the batsmen but they are very skilful.”
Carlos Brathwaite, the West Indies all-rounder, has received an official reprimand and received one demerit point for breaching the ICC’s code of conduct during the defeat to England. Brathwaite was deemed to have shown dissent to an umpire’s decision following his dismissal in the 43rd over.