Liam Livingstone is an injury doubt for England’s first fixture of the Super Eights on Thursday (June 20) against the West Indies. Here’s how they could replace him.
Livingstone picked up a side injury while batting in England’s final group stage match against Namibia last week. He scored 13 from four balls in the win but did not come back out to field. He reportedly batted in England’s net session in St Lucia on Monday (June 17), but did not bowl and did not practise range hitting with the rest of the batting group.
England now face a double-edged selection dilemma, with Livingstone both having been utilised for his spin bowling in the tournament as well as in the middle order. However, they have several options to replace him if he fails to recover in time.
Option One: Will Jacks
Jacks featured in the first three of England’s group matches, scoring a run-a-ball 10 and five off seven in the games against Australia and Oman respectively. However, he was dropped against Namibia, replaced by Sam Curran in the side.
As the most like-for-like replacement, Jacks gives options with both bat and ball. While undoubtedly offering less bowling than Livingstone, he’s bowled in three of his 16 T20Is and taken one wicket. However, his only outing so far with the ball in this competition was a 22-run over in the opening powerplay against Australia. Equally, even without throwing the ball to Jacks, England still have plenty of bowling options within their XI, with Moeen Ali coming in at six.
Jacks coming back into the side would also most likely mean Jonny Bairstow and Harry Brook shunted back down to make room at three. With so many top-order batters rammed into the top five, the Yorkshire pair have been batting at four and five when Jacks is in the XI. Against Namibia, the order looked more balanced with Bairstow and Brook in more natural positions. It is possible, though, that Jacks returns to the XI lower down the order, fulfilling the sort of role that Livingstone normally assumes.
Option Two: Ben Duckett
Duckett has yet to have an outing at this T20 World Cup, but could provide a solution to England’s left-hander dilemma. As it is, they don’t have a left-hander in their top five, making it more comfortable for opposition bowlers to target one side of the ground. However, as Duckett is a left-hander, putting him in the top four would split up their chain of right-handers. While they would lose the potential of a couple of overs sneaked through by a part-time bowler, Moeen Ali coming in at six with bowling all-rounders below him still gives them plenty of options.
Selecting Duckett could also be better for the balance of the top order than going with Jacks. While Duckett is a top-order batter, he has played 10 of his 12 T20I innings’ at four. Batting him in the same position would allow Bairstow to stay at three, a more natural position for him, while pushing Brook down to five, where he’s batted for the majority of his T20I career.
Option Three: Extra bowler
This is the least likely option, as England have an attack with plenty of variety already, without weakening their batting attack. Equally, the pitch at the Daren Sammy Stadium is expected to be good for batting and therefore packing the batting line-up should be the better option. However, England do have two other players in their squad with which to replace Livingstone, and enough all-rounders to still have a decent batting lineup.
They could opt to play all three premier quicks and bring Mark Wood back in after he was left out against Namibia. That would mean Sam Curran batting up the order at six. Despite that feeling a position too high, Curran has batted at six seven times in T20Is, and recently opened the batting for Punjab Kings in the IPL. The bigger problem would be a much longer tail, with Jofra Archer coming in at No.8.
The last option England have is to give Tom Hartley a T20I debut. Hartley was selected for his variety as a left-arm finger spinner, with his height giving an extra variation. Equally, in West Indies final group match at St Lucia, left-arm finger spinner Gudakesh Motie took 2-28 off his four overs. However, with the pitch also expected to be flat - the team batting first reached 200 in both matches played there so far - that could pre-empt a Hartley debut.
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