All-rounder Andrew Flintoff is to miss out on the ICC World Twenty20 having failed to recover sufficiently from knee surgery and his place will be taken by leg-spinner Adil Rashid, the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has confirmed.
31-year-old Flintoff flew home from the Indian Premier League (IPL) in April and underwent keyhole surgery on his right knee in a bid to get fit for the Twenty20 event and the Ashes, which begin on July 8th.
National Selector Geoff Miller explained: "We had to name Andrew in the ICC World Twenty20 15 because we hoped he would be fit but in reality the timescale was always optimistic. We have now obtained permission from ICC to name Yorkshire's Adil Rashid as a replacement. There is a lot of cricket still to play this year and it is important Andrew is fully fit for it.
"Meanwhile it is an exciting opportunity for Adil Rashid, who was in the original 30 we named in early April. He has impressed the England management after being a part of the Test tour to India and the subsequent Caribbean tour and deserves his chance."
After the International Cricket Council (ICC) Technical Committee confirmed that Rashid could replace the Lancashire's all-rounder, Flintoff has become the second player to pull out of the tournament, after Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar was replaced by Iftikhar Anjum before media reports in India, denied by the BCCI, claimed that Zaheer Khan was facing a fitness battle after injuring a shoulder in the IPL.
England are also currently missing Kevin Pietersen, who was rested from the One Day International series against the West Indies with an Achilles problem, although he is expected to be fit for the ICC World Twenty20, in which England take on Pakistan and the Netherlands in Group B.
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