Guyana, June 27 (UNI) England won the toss and chose to field first against India in their T20 World Cup semi final here on Thursday.
Bot sides retained their previous line ups – the decisions probably influenced by weather conditions and the nature of the pitch, which England captain Jos Buttler believes will favour bowlers initially.
The toss was delayed for nearly an hour due to wet condition at the Providence Stadium.
Rohit Sharma, the Indian captain, said he would have preferred to bat first. “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,” said Rohit, confirming an unchanged lineup for India.
England skipper Jos Buttler emphasised the advantage of bowling first given the conditions. “Looks like a good surface, 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”.
Teams
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (w), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah
England: Philip Salt, Jos Buttler (w/c), Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley.
