Superchargers confirmed to ESPNcricinfo on Sunday morning that Pennington has withdrawn from the final two weeks of the competition, making him a major doubt for England's first Test against Sri Lanka on August 21 at Emirates Old Trafford. Pat Brown, the Derbyshire seamer, will stay with Superchargers' squad as cover.

Stokes, England's captain, had talked Pennington up ahead of the third Test against West Indies, praising the work that he had done while training with the squad. "There's no doubt that if an opportunity comes to him, then he'll be ready to go," Stokes said. "He's done everything that you'd expect someone in a squad to do - even if they're not playing.

"He's got a naturally high release point, and I think his move to Notts has been very, very good for him. He's had a lot of clarity given to him... his bowling has progressed so quickly over the last year. That's the feedback that we got from not only the guys who we use for that, but also Ben Duckett fed back saying he's bowled some spells this year [like] at Test level."