Katherine Brunt has been forced to withdraw from the ICC Women’s World T20 after suffering a flare-up of her longstanding back injury.
Brunt will be replaced in England’s squad by Middlesex batter Fran Wilson. Wilson is not expected to arrive in time to be available for selection for Saturday’s first game against Sri Lanka.
All-rounder Brunt left the field after bowling five balls in England’s final warm-up game and scans have shown she will be unable to continue in the tournament.
Speaking at the time of Brunt’s injury, England coach Mark Robinson said: “You can’t replace Katherine because she bats and bowls.
“She bats in the top five and she’s one of your five bowlers. We haven’t got a like-for-like replacement.
“We haven’t got a genuine all-rounder who can do that role so we’re going to have to pick either a bowler or we have to pick a batter. So we’re going to have to go in with four bowlers or we go five specialist bowlers and we play six batters. That’s your dilemma.
“But we knew that before we came out. We planned that she might not make it, but we had to give her every chance.”
The decision to replace Brunt with Wilson shows that England have gone with the option of choosing an extra batter, with the bowling in the squad already deemed sufficient to cover for Brunt’s absence.
England will get their World T20 campaign underway at the Darren Sammy Cricket Ground at 8pm GMT on Saturday.
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