ICC World Cup 2023: Who Can Replace Injured Reece Topley In England Squad?

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England suffered a huge blow on Sunday (October 22) after pace spearhead Reece Topley was ruled out of the remainder of ICC World Cup 2023 due to a finger injury.

The lanky left-arm pacer Topley picked up the injury during England's 229-run loss to South Africa at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday (October 21). He suffered the blow when he was bowling his fourth over, but returned later to bowl five more overs.

However, Topley did not come out to bat in England's run chase of 400 with the match ending in favour of the Proteas. The pacer was sent for further scans immediately after the match which later revealed the extent of his injury.

The ECB revealed that Topley has suffered a fracture and is set to return to the UK within the next 24 hours to work closely with both the England and Surrey medical teams to facilitate his rehabilitation.

"England and Surrey seamer Reece Topley has been ruled out of the rest of the ICC Men's World Cup after fracturing his left index finger during England's defeat to South Africa on Saturday," said a statement from ECB.

Despite England's struggles in the World Cup 2023 so far, Topley, who missed the tournament opener, has been their most successful bolwer, having claimed 8 wickets in three matches with the best of figures of 4 for 43 against Bangladesh.

Even in the South Africa onslaught, Topley took three wickets, and his presence will surely be missed by the reigning champions as they look to climb up the table from the ninth position.

Who will replace Topley in England World Cup squad?

While the ECB plan to announce a replacement in the near future, coach Matthew Mott had stated that Jofra Archer, who is among the reserves, will not be included in the squad. However, that may change after a fracture to Topley has ruled him out of the tournament.

If not Archer, then who? The England squad already has pace options in Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, David Willey, Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson and also Ben Stokes, who played his first match of the tournament against South Africa.

It looks very unlikely that Stokes will bowl in this tournament. So, the pace options are down to five, which may be ideal to cope in Indian conditions. But adding a speedster like Archer will surely boost England's push to finish in the top four.

However, if they opt against picking Archer, the external options would be to fly down Brydon Carse, Luke Wood or George Scrimshaw, who were all part of the England squad that faced Ireland at home before the World Cup.

Luke Wood could be the left-arm seam replacement, but England already have Curran and Willey in the squad. So, they could look at Carse or Schrimshaw, who is also a tall bowler like Topley.

England, who have lost three of their four matches so far with their only win coming against Bangladesh, will look to soon forget the defeats to New Zealand and South Africa as well as the stunning loss to Afghaninstan, when they return to action.

Jos Buttler and Co will next face Sri Lanka at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday (October 26) before they meet in-form India at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday (October 29).