England pacer Reece Topley gets ruled out of ODI World Cup 2023 post injury, ECB to name his replacement soon

Matthew Mott, England coach, confirmed that Jofra Archer will not be considered for selection after Reece Topley has been ruled out of the remainder of England's ODI World Cup campaign. Notably, Topley had suffered an injury during England’s clash against South Africa, in Mumbai. The pacer was hit by a ball and cut his finger while diving to stop Rassie van der Dussen's full-blooded drive back down the ground which went for the boundary.

He left the pitch after bowling the fifth ball of the same over which also reached the boundary line. He returned and claimed two more wickets. However, he was not asked to bat as the defending champions suffered a crushing 229-run loss. Meanwhile, Mott stated that Topley will not play ahead in the marquee event and that the management is not in any rush to announce his replacement as yet. Moreover, Mott also iterated that England will wait to figure out who will be the 'X' factor for their side based on how the upcoming fixtures pan out.

"We'll have to look at the upcoming games. If there is an X-factor player we can look at - that's why we're very keen not to name the replacements and reserves, and it leaves an open mind for what we're going to go with."

"I thought Reece Topley going back out to bowl with a broken finger showed great spirit. We're still waiting on that, but it's very much looking like it's a crack. Certainly, that's the early diagnosis, but we'll find out properly with X-rays,” Mott told Sky Sports at the end of the contest.

He further confirmed that Archer will not play a game at the end of the ongoing tournament.
 
"Jof is actually not going to be considered for selection. He's come out, he's reported to the medical staff, but he's not going to be able to play a part in the end of this campaign,” he added.

We looked at the ground stats, it said it was a good chasing ground: Mott

Mott further reflected on England’s performance against South Africa in Mumbai. Opting to bowl first after winning the toss, England conceded 399 and crumbled at 170 runs in just 22 overs.

"I can't sugarcoat that, it was a hard night for us. I think we come in with really good intentions in this game. It was a fantastic cricket wicket. We looked at the ground stats, it said it was a good chasing ground. On reflection, I thought the heat was probably more than we bargained for. It certainly looked a little bit like a warzone there at times, particularly after Topley went off,” Mott added.

The 50-year-old further lavished praise on Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jansen’s partnership for the seventh wicket. He added that England managed to pick five wickets in 40 overs and thought of limiting them below 300 runs.

"Hindsight is great. But we went out there in that powerplay to do a job and we were well on the way to doing that, and obviously it spiralled out of control in the last 10 overs. That was class batting at the end there, with two set batters. We'd got five wickets in the first 40 overs, we'd probably done the bulk of the work to be honest, a couple more wickets there, we could have restricted them to under 300, which I think in these conditions would have been very achievable,” the coach added.