Chris Jordan arrives in Abu Dhabi on Friday as a replacement for Steven Finn with the Sussex coach, Mark Robinson, expecting his seamer to enter the selection mix for the second Test after battling back from a side strain in the latter half of the English season.
As England toiled on the second day of the first Test on Wednesday, Finn, who had impressed in the second warm-up of the tour with four wickets, was flying home with the bone-stress complaint to his left foot deemed in need of prolonged rest.
The injury – the precursor to suffering a stress fracture – is a cruel blow for a bowler who made an explosive, eight-wicket return to Test cricket against Australia at Edgbaston in July following an 18-month absence and he will now target a return for England’s tour to South Africa in December.
Confirmed the news on Wednesday morning, an ECB statement said: “Steven Finn has been ruled out of the remainder of the tour of the UAE with a bone stress injury to his left foot, which requires a period of offloading to aid recovery. He will return to the UK for further assessment.”
The last of Jordan’s eight Test caps came during April’s tour of the Caribbean, where his six catches matched his tally of wickets taken in the three-match series. But after being overlooked at the start of the summer for Mark Wood against New Zealand, a side injury suffered during the one-day series in June took two months out of his season.
Returning for Sussex in August, Jordan claimed 18 wickets at 26 in four championship matches – he ended the campaign opening the batting, too – but was unable to prevent his side being relegated to Division Two following defeat to champions Yorkshire at Headingley.
With Wood playing a pivotal role in regaining the Ashes, England appeared to have moved on from Jordan in the longest form of the game, with the right-armer losing his central contract at the end of September and featuring in the Twenty20 squad only for the UAE tour.
But now through Finn’s misfortune, the door has opened once more. And should England decide the attack needs freshening up for the second Test in Dubai next Thursday – their lack of penetration on day two of the first Test making the likelihood of that scenario increase – then Jordan will compete with fellow quick Liam Plunkett for a recall.
In Jordan’s favour are his adhesive hands, while Robinson, his coach at Sussex, believes his ability to reverse the old ball could be an asset on the dry pitches in the Gulf. “There’s nobody better in the world at catching and it is a shock if he puts one down in training,” Robinson said of the 27-year-old.
“He knows what he needs to do to become a nailed-on England player and he is working to raise his consistency level. At the end of the season he was in good rhythm and was getting the ball to swing at a good length. Obviously conditions in the UAE are different but in our game against Worcestershire we had a dry pitch and he was getting some good reverse swing with the old ball. He found more and more rhythm with every game after he came back from injury and I think he’s got an extra yard of pace now which could be an asset.”
