CT17 semi-final: England might make one change for Pakistan match
After Pakistan-Sri Lanka thrilling contest in CT17, the green shirts reached semis to face England
(Web Desk) – Pakistan and England will go head-to-head in ICC Champions Trophy 2017 first semi-final on June 14 after the green shirts registered a nail-biting win against Sri Lanka.
English skipper Eoin Morgan hinted at playing Jonny Bairstow instead of Jason Roy in the big match. "Pakistan has a really strong bowling attack but we have our plans against the spinners," he added.
Their team for the semi-final match with Pakistan will include Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan (captain), Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood, Jake Ball, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler.
All the tickets for the much-awaited semi-final have been sold out already. The surprising thing is that most of these tickets are owned by Indians who might have expected their nation to land in the first semi-final.
India and Bangladesh will play the second semi-final which is scheduled on June 15. It will be interesting to see the support from spectators for both sides in the ground.
Watch Pakistani fans cheer their team after the won the thrilling battle against Sri Lanka:
While Indians own the 38pc tickets of the Pakistan-England face-off, the Pakistani fans were reportedly searching for tickets from their Indian friends. The match will be played at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff which has only 14,000 seats while 10,800 fans had came to watch the Pakistan-Sri Lanka encounter played in the same ground.
The conditions for the match are expected to be overcast. A large number of Pakistani fans had come to cheer up their side in the quarter-final. It will be interesting to see how many of them show up for the semis.
Former English captain Michael Vaughan expressed his concerns over the low number of seats in the ground and said some of the seats remained vacant which is an alarming situation.
