Stern English challenge awaits India as they hope to reclaim top spot on the points table

India will face one of their steepest challenges in the ongoing World Cup as a wounded England unit look to spoil the party for the hosts, with the two teams clashing paths at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on October 29th. At the moment, the form of these two teams are certainly contrasting, and while India will start off as favourites, England will be keen to send out a statement. 

However, knowing the history between these two sides, no matter the form, when these two take to the field, it has always produced an exciting cricket match. India are currently unbeaten from five matches, while England have underperformed beyond imagination, with just one win to show from five games. 

India will be without their key all-rounder, Hardik Pandya who has been ruled out of this game with an ankle injury that he copped during India’s outing against Bangladesh while England will be missing the services of Reece Topley, who has already been ruled out of the tournament.

One of the major points of concern for the English side will be their batting unit, which, despite wearing a look of supreme confidence, has failed to come to the party.  that despite being one of the most feared in the world has terribly underperformed in the tournament. Against India’s in-form bowling unit and with the Lucknow pitch proving to be two-faced, that pattern might just continue on Sunday.

Venue Watch:

This is a good batting surface and has provided significant assistance to the sides batting first in day-night encounters. Despite the dew factor coming in for the second innings, with the surface showing signs of breaking down, batting gets a lot more difficult. The average score batting first is 229 while the average score chasing is 213.

Head to Head:

Matches played: 106

India – 57

England - 44

Match Details:

Match – India vs England

Venue: Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow

Date: 29th October, 2023

Time: 2:00 PM

World Cup face-offs:

Matches played: 8

India: 3

England: 4

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.

England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (c, wk), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Harry Brook, David Willey, Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson.