Eoin Morgan hopes to be fit for Australia series

Eoin Morgan, whose participation as captain of the ICC World XI side in the fund-raising Twenty20 International against the Windies at Lord’s on Thursday, 31 May, was scuttled after he fractured a finger, is confident about being fit in time to face the visiting Australians next month.

Morgan fractured the ring finger on his right hand while fielding for Middlesex against Somerset in a One-Day Cup game on Sunday.

That put him out of the Hurricane Relief T20 Challenge, and Shahid Afridi has since taken over as captain with Sam Billings replacing Morgan in the ICC World XI squad.

“It's not a huge concern, it's one that hopefully we can manage past about a week when the swelling goes down,” Morgan said. “It's not fractured into the joint, which is a really good result. I'll be fine for the one-dayers.”

The one-day international series against Australia starts on 13 June, with the visitors set to play two warm-up games – against Sussex and Middlesex – before that on 7 and 9 June. England are also slated to play an ODI against Scotland on 10 June, and Morgan could be fit in time for that game.

“I will hopefully be back for one more Middlesex game, potentially two. We will wait and see,” said Morgan.

It is understood that the finger should take between seven and 10 days to heal and if that happens, Morgan should be in the mix for the whole Australia series – of five ODIs and one Twenty20 International.