Denly ruled out of Ireland series with back spasms

Denly suffered back spasms while training on Wednesday, 29 July, ahead of the first ODI the following day. His exclusion made room for Sam Billings who went on to score 67* as England won by six wickets.

The Kent batsman was the only player to make the switch from the Test squad that played against West Indies to the squad for this series, with the majority staying separate ahead of the Test series with Pakistan.

Livingstone, who was already with the squad in their bio-secure environment at the Ageas Bowl as one of three named reserve players, will now take up a spot in the squad proper. He has previously played twice for England, in a pair of T20Is against South Africa in 2017. While he did not perform as he would have liked to in those games – scoring 16 and 0 – he has impressed in appearances for England Lions.

In all, Livingstone has batted 19 times in List A games for the Lions, scoring 630 runs at an average of 37.05. He was also part of the team that played against Ireland in a practice fixture ahead of this series, scoring 28 off 20 before being bowled by Mark Adair.

England currently lead the three-match series 1-0, with the second ODI scheduled to be played on Saturday, 1 August.