Beaumont stands in as captain after Sciver-Brunt suffers groin injury

Nat Sciver-Brunt, England's captain, has been ruled out of the third T20I against India at the Kia Oval on Friday, and could miss the remainder of the five-match series, after suffering a groin strain during her side's 24-run defeat in Bristol on Tuesday.

Tammy Beaumont will step in as captain, for the first time in her 247-match international career, with Sciver-Brunt set to undergo further scans to assess the severity of the injury. She was forced to leave the field for large parts of Tuesday's contest, with Sophia Dunkley, her official vice-captain, taking the reins in her absence. However, with England slipping to a 2-0 series deficit with three matches remaining, Beaumont's greater experience has been called upon for now.

"It's real pride and honour to have the captain's armband tomorrow, albeit in difficult circumstances," Beaumont said. "Charlotte [Edwards, head coach] asked to meet me this morning, and straightaway 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."

The setback is a blow, not only for England's hopes of bouncing back in a series in which they have been comprehensively outplayed by their opponents, but also for their bid to forge a new team identity in the wake of Heather Knight's removal as captain earlier this year.

The new captain-coach partnership of Sciver-Brunt and Edwards began the summer with a comfortable clean sweep of West Indies across ODI and T20I formats. However, England have found the step-up in class of India's batters especially hard to counter, with Smriti Mandhana's century in the series opener setting up a crushing 97-run victory at Trent Bridge, before Jemimah Rodrigues and Amanjot Kaur combined to post another imposing total of 181 for 4 in Bristol.

"The worst thing we could do right now is panic," Beaumont said. "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.

"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."

Sciver-Brunt had already been unable to bowl this series, with England managing her workload prior to this setback. However, she was their lone source of resistance with the bat at Trent Bridge, making 66 from 42 balls out of England's total of 113. Beaumont, however, had been in fine form in the West Indies series, with two hundreds in the ODI series, and top-scored for England in the Bristol match, making 54 from 35 balls before being run out.

"Obviously it's pretty amazing to be back in the T20 side," Beaumont said, having been a peripheral figure in the format since the 2021-22 Ashes. "It's a slightly different role [at No. 4], but something that I think I've got the skillset to be able to do."

Asked whether she expected Sciver-Brunt to be ready in time for next Wednesday's fourth match at Emirates Old Trafford, Beaumont said the picture was currently unclear, but that she was braced to take on the captaincy role for as long as needed.

"That's something we don't know just yet, our medical team are doing all they can," Beaumont said. "She's got a scan today, so we'll know more, but I think it's in the balance for Manchester. But, whether it's one game or a couple, I'm just hoping to put my hand up for the team and do the best I can, and will welcome Nat back with open arms whenever she's fit."

England's struggles against India have come as a reality check for the team, which has got used to winning comfortably on home soil in recent years, including an unbeaten summer campaign against New Zealand and Pakistan in 2024, before coming unstuck at the major tournaments - including last winter's T20 World Cup in the UAE, and their 16-0 points loss in the Ashes.

In those circumstances, Beaumont agreed that the challenge that India were mounting could prove to be a blessing in disguise in the long run.

"That's what we keep talking about," she said. "We've wanted more challenge [on home soil] for a long time. We're well aware that our results in world tournaments and big series haven't been what we've wanted them to be for a number of years now.

"It's only going to happen by being pushed more in bilateral series and feeling that pressure, and experiencing that, and taking learnings from it, and getting better each time. It's happened quite early on, and it may come as a bit of a shock, but we are doing the hard work behind the scenes.

"We had another really good meeting this morning, with some really honest reflections from a lot of players. A lot of players were being vulnerable, and that's the only way that you can learn. Unfortunately, at the moment, we're going through a tough time, but I'm a firm believer that tough times don't last, but tough people do. We're trying to become really tough people in this team and keep moving forward."