India vs England: Cricket titans collide in Lucknow today
Cricket
England simply must beat India to keep their own semi-final hopes alive
(Web Desk) - The undefeated hosts can aim to plant one foot in the knockout stages, while defending champions England simply must beat India to keep their own semi-final hopes alive.
India and England are playing out totally distinct campaigns at the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023.
The hosts are undefeated after five matches and surging towards the semi-finals, while England are only off the bottom of the standings on net run rate and all but out of contention to join the pointy end of the tournament.
India have mostly looked irrepressible as they brushed aside each of their five opponents so far but will still be wary of a defending champion now well and truly on the ropes.
A well-balanced attack has been a key to India’s bright start with 46 of a possible 50 batters dismissed thus far, including the full allotment against Australia, Pakistan and New Zealand.
That will rightly concern an England outfit that has failed to pass 200 in their two outings since scoring 215 to fall 69 runs short in the loss to Afghanistan that in hindsight exposed a range of deficiencies.
England will still have a winding route to take to the knockout stages even if they fail to turn around their form and fortunes to snatch a victory from India.
But a fourth consecutive loss would mean England need so many results to go their way that this already looks like the titleholders' last stand.
Squads
INDIA: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.
ENGLAND: Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Brydon Carse, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.
