Providence [Guyana]: Defending champions England won the toss and opted to field first against unbeaten Rohit Sharma-led Team India in the semi-final clash of heavyweights at the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup at Providence Stadium on Thursday.
If rain ends up completely ruling out the game, India, having topped the Super Eights group, would advance to the final, while England's chance to defend their crown would end on a bitter note.
In what turns out to be a rematch of the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final between the two juggernauts of cricket, this time, India will look to turn their fortune around. In 2022, Jos Buttler and Alex Hales muscled away India's bowling attack with their sheer strength and ever-reliant stroke play.
Speaking at the time of toss, England captain Jos Buttler said, "We'll bowl first. Looks like a good surface, and the bounce will be low, with the rain around, we thought it'll be a bit of an advantage to bowl first. We're up against a great team, but we're peaking nicely and we are playing the same team today. Looking forward to a great challenge against a top side. Excited to be in a semi-final, but some of us have been here before."
Rohit said, "We would have batted first, the weather looks good, whatever had to happen, it has already happened. We wanted to put runs on the board. The pitch tends to get slower as the game goes on. We understand the challenge of playing a tournament like this, a lot of travel and logistics. It's a chance to play some good cricket. We don't want to think too far ahead, stay in the moment and let your game do the talking. Same team for us."
England (Playing XI): Philip Salt, Jos Buttler(w/c), Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid and Reece Topley.
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah.
—ANI