ADELAIDE: England fast bowler Steven Finn has been ruled out of the Ashes series against Australia after scans showed he has torn his left knee cartilage, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Tuesday.

The 28-year-old quick, a 2010-11 and 2013-14 Ashes tourist, missed the opening tour match in Perth after sustaining the injury in practice last week.

“...Finn will now return to the UK in the 48 hours where he will meet a knee specialist to ascertain whether he will have an operation,” the ECB said in a statement.

England. meanwhile, have called up Surrey seamer Tom Curran to replace Finn.Curran, 22, is next in line and the ECB has announced he will fly to Australia on Wednesday.

He has played a single One-day International and three Twenty20 Internationals but is yet to make his Test debut.

All-rounder Moeen Ali, who has a side strain, will miss this week’s day-night match against a Cricket Australia XI but was on track to be available for a return to action in the warm-up game in Towsnville starting Nov. 15.

“Moeen Ali ... more precautionary now, we will just leave him out of this one and make sure he’s right,” England coach Trevor Bayliss told reporters in Adelaide.

Finn was added to the squad as a replacement for Ben Stokes after the all-rounder was suspended following his arrest on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm outside a nightclub.

Bayliss also responded to reports in the Australian media on Tuesday that said Stokes would soon face an England and Wales Cricket Board disciplinary hearing and could join the squad in time for the third Test.

“I haven’t spoken [to anyone] or heard of anything since we have been here,” said Bayliss. “If we concentrate on that, and wondering if he is coming or not, that might take the focus off what we’re trying to achieve so we have just been going about preparing with the players we have got here.

“If he happens to turn up at some stage, it’s a bonus. If he doesn’t, bad luck, we will just get on with what we have got.”

ECB director of cricket Andrew Strauss said England were looking for ‘clarity’ over Stokes’s position.

Bayliss also said he was uncertain over one batting spot and another fast bowling option for the first Test starting in Brisbane on Nov 23.

“We have probably got a batting spot to finalise and probably a fourth pace position so there’s a little bit of competition from within which is good,” Bayliss said.

The coach said the team was focused on becoming familiar with the day-night conditions and playing with a pink ball ahead of the second Test at Adelaide Oval.

England have only played one day-night Test, which they lost to the West Indies last August.

“We have got this [Adelaide] game to see what happens with the pink ball and for our guys to experience it with a view obviously to that [day-night] second Test,” Bayliss said.

“If the ball moves around a little bit more, that is what we like to see more of.

“Our batters are more used to playing on wickets that do a bit more sideways and obviously the bowlers bowling on it as well, more so than the Australian guys.”

Former Test fast bowler Ryan Harris, coach of the CA XI team, said he wants to send the tourists to Brisbane low on confidence and with as little insight as possible into batting against the pink ball.

“I know going into these sorts of tours your warm-up games can set the tone for the tour, you don’t want to lose. Our job is to make it as tough as we can,” Harris told reporters.

Harris said he wants to reduce batting opportunities for England during the twilight period that has proven prohibitive for batsmen.

“We are not here to make it easy for England,” Harris said. “When it gets to dusk the grass almost seems to sit up and it zips around. It can be tough to bat around that time.

“That is where we will make it as hard as we can for England. Hopefully they are not batting around that time, that is my plan.”

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2017