Dawid Malan is expected to be unavailable for the semi-finals after being forced off the field with an injury in the first innings of England’s win over Sri Lanka to secure qualification from Group 1.

The left-handed number three has been a mainstay of the English T20I side in recent years, scoring 1748 runs at an average of 38.84 in an anchor role near the top of the order.

Malan’s consistency and volume of runs have kept him near the top of the MRF ICC Batting Rankings for a number of years, topping that list for long stretches. He remains England’s best-ranked batter in the T20 format, currently lying sixth in the world..

The likely absence of Malan from the XI to face India creates a selection dilemma for Jos Buttler’s side.

Here are the various options facing the England selectors:

Pick Phil Salt as a direct batting replacement

Big-hitting opener Phil Salt is the sole batting cover in England’s squad in Australia. If the preference is to maintain a batting-heavy selection approach then Salt is the obvious pick, but there are three possible options for how he would slot into the XI.

As a straight swap at No. 3

Salt could potentially come straight into the side in Malan’s position at first drop.

The advantage of this approach is it would avoid England having to shuffle their batting order at a crucial stage of the tournament.

But Salt rarely plays at number three for his county or franchise teams, has never been picked there for England, and his selection would leave the team with a top three of exclusively right-handers.

Replace Malan with an extra bowler

England played the Super 12 stage with a batting-heavy strategy, naming four front-line bowlers and then using Stokes, Ali and Livingstone to cover the remainder of the overs.

But prior to the tournament it appeared that Buttler’s preference was a bowling-heavy selection, with England typically naming five bowlers in the previous six months.

If England do opt for such an approach they can cover it in the batting order by simply moving everyone up one, with Sam Curran more than capable of featuring as a number seven.

But there are two contrasting choices for the sort of bowler they would bring in.

The death-overs specialist: Chris Jordan

No fast bowler has taken more T20 wickets for England than Jordan, and he can swing a bat too.

The 34-year-old had been a regular pick in the side for the previous eight years, but slipped out of the XI in the last 12 months after being dismantled in the semi-final loss to New Zealand at the last World Cup