Craig Overton hopes to be playing alongside Jake Ball again soon after revealing the England seamer may only be sidelined for 10 days.
Ball injured his ankle during day two of England's tour match against a Cricket Australia XI in Adelaide, and played no further part in the match.
England's attack performed well despite being a bowler light with Overton, Chris Woakes and James Anderson shining as the side cruised to a 192-run win .
With Steven Finn already ruled out of the series with a knee injury the loss of Ball would leave England with a very inexperienced bowling line-up, but Overton hinted the 26-year-old would not be out for long.
"He's feeling good," Overton said when asked about Ball. "I'm not too sure about the details yet.
"I think from what I heard yesterday it's about a week to 10 days [before Ball will be back], we're hopeful it'll be a bit quicker but we're not entirely sure yet."
Tom Curran has arrived in Australia as a replacement for Finn, while George Garton has been added as cover in case Ball does not recover.
Despite its injury problems Overton is confident England's fit bowlers are ready to step up and show in Adelaide they can cause Australia problems when the competitive action gets underway.
"There's always massive pressure on the bowling unit, even if we had everyone fit, so we're taking it as it comes the people who are fit are going to have to step forward and make the most of it," said Overton – who finished the tour match with figures of 5-57.
"It was obviously a good match for us, we got runs on the board in the first innings and bowled pretty well.
"The second innings with the bat didn't quite go to plan under the lights but the way we bowled last night showed what you can do with the pink ball under lights, and to come back this morning and finish off pretty quickly was nice.
"We've learnt quite a lot, especially with the ball."
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