Sharjah: England have suffered a huge blow as their left-arm pacer Tymal Mills has been ruled out of the remaining games of the T20 World Cup 2021 after he suffered from a muscle strain on his right thigh.
According to a official media release by ECB, Tymal went for scans after the match. After learning the extent of his injury, the team management decided to replace him with Surrey’s Reece Topley in the 15-man squad.
“Mills sustained the injury bowling in the T20 World Cup Super 12s match against Sri Lanka on Monday in Sharjah. Results of the scan on Tuesday night revealed the extent of the injury. Surrey’s Reece Topley has been added to the England World Cup squad following his role as travelling reserve.” ECB said in a statement.
The 29-year-old Mills has struggled with injury for much of his career, having been diagnosed with a congenital back complaint in 2015 which forced him to retire from first-class cricket and for a long while left him unable to bowl more than four overs in a day. He suffered a stress fracture to his back last summer, as a result of which he spent three months of last winter in a back brace.
Mills, who stands to be the joint highest wicket-taker for Englishmen in T20 WC so far, was substituted by Sam Billings in the Lanka game. The left-arm fast bowler conceded 19 runs in his wicketless 1.3 overs. He has played 13 ODIs and six T20I matches for the England cricket team. Topley has scalped a total of 25 wickets in international cricket.
England last played their game against Sri Lanka where they registered a convincing 26 runs victory. England will next face off South Africa on Saturday.
