England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow was forced to leave the field after a painful blow to the middle finger of his left-hand early on day three of the third Test against India in Nottingham. He was sent for X-rays on his left hand after being struck on the end of his middle finger by a late swinging delivery from James Anderson.

The blow caused the 28-year-old to double over in pain before he quickly headed for the Trent Bridge dressing room with his hand covered. Fellow gloveman Jos Buttler, who has kept wicket in 15 Test matches for England, then took over behind the stumps from his teammate. However, the scan results have suggested that Jonny has sustained a “small fracture” to his left middle finger.

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England has no shortage of ‘keeping options in their current Test XI, with another option in Ollie Pope also in the squad, but they will be sweating on No.5 batsman Bairstow’s ability to bat in their second innings in Trent Bridge. They were bowled out for 161 on day two of the third Test, well shy of India’s first-innings total of 329.

India continued to build their lead during the first session on day three, with Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara scoring half-centuries as to extend their lead to 380+, while England failed to find a breakthrough. 

England will be hoping Bairstow is still able to bat in the second innings, with his experience much needed in their second innings as they try and save the Test.

Stand in-wicketkeeper Jos Buttler was critical of his team’s shoddy batting display and said, “Very disappointing, but we’ll dust ourselves down and come back hard. It’s important we can recognize why it’s happened and improve. When we’ve got that momentum, when we’ve been bowling, it felt like we were going to take a wicket every ball.”