The hosts India will take on the reigning champions England at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow in the 29th match of the ongoing World Cup 2023 on Sunday. India has played like champions as they have won all of their five matches and they have smashed their boxes as a unit to be at the top of the points table.
England, on the other hand, have not turned up in the ODI showpiece, managing a solitary win in five games. The Three Lions were stunned by Sri Lanka in their last game after they were folded for 156 runs and have looked depleted so far.
On the other hand, India has done everything right so far as it has been a perfect tournament for the home team. The Men in Blue were pushed a bit by New Zealand in their last game but they came out victorious by four wickets in the end after another fine knock of 95 runs from chase master, Virat Kohli. Furthermore, Mohammed Shami, playing his first match of the tournament, returned with impressive figures of 5-54 to keep the Kiwis at 273.
But Hardik Pandya is going to miss the huge clash as he has suffered a ligament tear. As Lucknow’s pitch is expected to be on the slow side, India could also bring an extra spinner in Ravichandran Ashwin in place of one of the pacers as England has looked at sea while playing against spinners.
Meanwhile, England will have to come up with a better performance. Almost all of their players have looked out of form and they haven’t clicked at all as a unit, which has been disappointing as they are still a quality team.
Match Prediction: Based on current form, India will enter the contest as favorites against England.
England squad: 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.
India squad: 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.
