‘Freak accident’ forces Bairstow out of T20 World Cup

Jonny Bairstow has been ruled out of the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia as the England batter suffered a 'freak accident' while playing golf today.

"England and Yorkshire batter Jonathan Bairstow has been ruled out of the rest of the summer and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup. Bairstow sustained a lower limb injury in a freak accident whilst playing golf on Friday in Leeds," the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement on Friday.

Earlier, Bairstow was named in England's 15-member squad for the mega event. The wicketkeeper-batter has been enjoying a rich vein of form of late and, thus, the news comes off as a setback for the English team.

However, England -- the current 50-over world champions and beaten semi-finalists in the previous T20 World Cup in 2021 – are a team who can afford to leave out someone like Jason Roy as the attacking opening batter did not make the cut in the World Cup squad.    

A 19-player England team are set to tour Pakistan later this month for a seven-match T20 series -- their first tour of the country since 2005 -- with five uncapped players bolstering the travelling squad. Bairstow, before he got injured, was granted the permission to skip the tour following a packed summer as an all-format regular.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is yet to name Bairstow's replacement.

England's T20 World Cup squad:

Joss Buttler, Moeen Ali, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

Reserves: Liam Dawson, Richard Gleeson, Tymal Mills.