ENG vs AUS: Australia suffer a big blow ahead of second ODI

Ahead of the second ODI at the Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, the visiting Australian team has been hit by a huge blow as their in-form lanky pacer Billy Stanlake is in doubt for the game with a laceration on his big toe. He suffered the cut during the first One Day International, which Australia lost by three wickets.

During the recently completed Indian Premier League 2018 season, Stanlake suffered a finger injury and opted out of SRH camp after representing in just 6 games for his team. The towering quick bowled a brilliant spell of 2/44 in the first ODI of the five-match series against England by picking crucial wickets of Jason Roy on the very first ball of the innings and Joe Root with an edge.

Billy had a similar toe issue earlier, it almost led to the amputation of the toe on his left foot during the last summer, “It just started off as an open wound on the top of my toe purely from bowling,” Stanlake told cricket.com.au of the injury he suffered earlier. “It gradually got worse and worse. I couldn’t walk on it, it got pretty serious. I was in the hospital for four days and needed surgery. I don’t think I was that far off losing it. I think if (the infection) had gotten into the bone or the tendons, I might have been in some serious trouble,” he added.

Australian selector Trevor Hohns was spotted at the training session having a chat with the Aussie skipper. Tim Paine will have a new headache of shuffling the playing XI ahead of the crucial second ODI, where he might hand the debut cap to D’Arcy Short and keep Travis Head in the middle order as Aaron Finch had a good average against England as an opener.

The second ODI in Cardiff will be played on Saturday (16 June). While England is in sight to extend their lead, Australians aim to level the series with three more games to go.

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