London [UK], July 3 : England women's captain Nat Sciver-Brunt has been ruled out of the decisive third T20I against India on Friday after sustaining an injury to her left groin.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) released a statement on the eve of the third clash to confirm the skipper's absence, which read, "England Women's captain Nat Sciver-Brunt will miss the third Vitality IT20 against India Women at the Kia Oval with a left groin injury."
The results of the scan will determine whether Sciver-Brunt is required to miss any more games in the five-match series. Manchester will play host to the fourth T20I on July 9, and the series will conclude in Birmingham on July 12.
In her absence, Tammy Beaumont will captain the side in the third fixture, with Hampshire batter Maia Bouchier called up to the squad for the Kia Oval as cover. With India leading the series with a 2-0 scoreline, Beaumont, who boasts 246 international appearances, will captain England for the first time to keep the series alive.
"It's real pride and honour to have the captain's armband tomorrow, albeit in difficult circumstances. Charlotte [Edwards, head coach] asked to meet me this morning, and straight away I said, 'Yep, thank you very much. I'll give it a good go'. I guess we need a bit of fight to come out in this series, and I'm probably someone who likes to get in a battle, so can understand why," Beaumont said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
After Heather Knight stepped down as England captain, Sciver-Brunt took over the role and began her reign with a clean sweep of the West Indies across ODI and T20I formats. However, against India, England felt the pressure of the top-class quality of the batters, especially Smriti Mandhana, who blazed her way to a sizzling century to set up a 97-run victory at Trent Bridge. In Bristol, Amanjot Kaur combined to post another imposing total of 181/4, which proved way too much for the hosts.
"The worst thing we could do right now is panic. Obviously, it's not the circumstances we wanted to be in. We didn't want to be 2-0 down, and we didn't want our captain and best batter to be out of the team. But we're here where we are, and that's what we've got to do," Beaumont said.
"We've got to try and bring some calm to it, and some rationale, some logic. We certainly believe we can come back and win this. Full credit to India. They've challenged us. They've pushed us so far, but I hope that we can respond, and I'm certainly intending on getting the girls to try and respond to what's happened so far," she added.