Adelaide: England captain Jos Buttler has won the toss and elected to bowl first against India in the second semifinal of Men’s T20 World Cup at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday. The winner of Thursday’s match will face Pakistan in the final at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.
After winning the toss, Buttler confirmed that pacer Mark Wood and left-handed batter Dawid Malan miss out on the semifinal due to injuries, with experienced pace all-rounder Chris Jordan and right-handed batter Phil Salt coming into the playing eleven.
“There is going to be a great atmosphere here. Obviously the dimensions here are a little different, so we have to adapt quickly. Looks a good wicket. Hope it stays well the whole game,” he added.
India skipper Rohit Sharma said he would have batted first anyway and added that the playing eleven is unchanged from their 71-run win over Zimbabwe in their last Group 2 match, meaning Rishabh Pant retains his place ahead of Dinesh Karthik.
“We’ve played some good cricket, another opportunity for us to play the same way we have all tournament. Important to hold the nerve and take the game till the end. We’ve played these guys a fair bit in recent years and know what strengths, weaknesses they have.”
“Important to exploit that. Important to stay calm and do what we want to do. It (injury) was a scare but I’m fine now. The kind of talent we have, it was a tough one (to pick the XI),” he added.
While India have previously played at the Adelaide Oval during their five-run win over Bangladesh in Group 2 match last week, this will be England’s first match at the venue in the ongoing competition.
Teams who have opted to bat first have a 4-2 win-loss record in Adelaide in the tournament. Also, no team has won a match in the ongoing tournament at the Adelaide Oval after winning the toss.
In the head-to-head record in T20Is, India have the upper hand over England by 12-10. India also hold a 2-1 lead over England in Men’s T20 World Cups and won by a similar margin in the bilateral series played between the two teams in July this year.
Playing XIs:
India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
England: Alex Hales, Jos Buttler (captain & wicket-keeper), Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Chris Jordan
(IANS)
