"You can't replace Katherine because of way she bats and bowls" says Mark Robinson

After the warm-up game against India which England lost by 11 runs, England coach Mark Robinson addressed the media about Katherine Brunt's injury and her playing in the mega event. "It didn't look great at that point. She hasn't been able to take any part in the competition so far, she's been practising, and today was a game to get her up and running," he said.



"She's on a reduced run-up. It's hard for us, she's an important player. Two of the players that bat in our top five in the summer are out. We've prepared for that as well, something we have to take on the chin, back the other players."



"You can't replace Katherine because of the bats and bowls. She bats in the top five and she's one of your five bowlers. We haven't got a like for like replacement. We haven't got a genuine all-rounder who can do that role so we're going to have to pick either a bowler or we have to pick a batter," expressed Robinson while talking about Brunt's injury.



"So we're going to have with four bowlers. Nat , Heather , if Dunks is playing and Danni Wyatt to fill in, or we go with five specialist bowlers and we play six batsmen and that's the dilemma. We planned that she might not make it but we had to give her every chance."



Along with all-rounder Brunt, England's star batter Sarah Taylor won't take part in the competition due to health issues. Talking about them, he shared, "She bats at 5 or 6. Sarah bats at no. 3 and she bowls as well. So you lose one of your five bowlers and you lose your batter. That's why we've done everything we can to give her the best chance. We planned not to have her to a degree as well."



"I think it was a bit of shock there as well, from her point of work. She's an emotional girl anyway. She put a lot into trying to get out today and she played, and suddenly she feels like she's going into spasm as such. And you've got NZ watching, you've got the press with the cameraman, everything going on, a lot of emotion, so that's where we need to take stock and see where we are," he further added.



"We've had three games over here since July. Tonight was really really good. We played West Indies in front of 4000 people, that was really good as well. South Africa was a quite convincing win. Tonight was a great learner for us. Their spinners outbowled us. They bowled into the wicket and protected the short boundary. We bowled all the length and got hit, gave the batter a chance to hit over somebody's head, which you can't do in these conditions. It shows here that if you bowl back of the length as a spinner, with leg side back, it's old-fashioned women's cricket, it's hard to clear the boundary," he explained while talking about their second warm-up game against India.



"A lot of effort and work has gone in. What you want to be able to do as a team is to adapt to conditions all around the world... You're not going to see the highest scoring games, that's for sure... I wish the boundaries are in, that would give the batters more of a chance, but we're playing on maximum boundaries."