Ripley confident Duckett will be back in action soon

The County batsman, who is currently in the UAE for the U19 World Cup, has missed England’s last two group games because of a groin strain.

In his absence, England were beaten by Sri Lanka but recovered to thrash New Zealand and book a place in the quarter-finals this weekend.

It is expected they will face their Indian counterparts in the first knockout stage and Ripley thinks that Duckett will be able to take his place in the middle order.

He said: “It was borderline whether he played (against New Zealand) and he obviously felt that it wasn’t quite right.

“I heard from Ben and Tim Boon (England coach) and they were just marking my card.

“You can be a little bit precious with things like this and my view is that if Ben thinks he is fit to play then he should play.

“It is a World Cup and you don’t play in those all the time and I think he’ll be back sooner rather than later.”