Toss England chose to bowl vs India
England won the toss in the semi-final and had no hesitation in putting India in at the chase-friendly Wankhede Stadium. India’s captain Suryakumar Yadav, though, emphatically said that he wanted to bat first anyway to access scoreboard pressure of a big match. He also said he didn’t expect any dew because it was a windy evening.
Either way, India now needed to do what hasn’t been done since 2014: successfully defend a total in a T20 World Cup knockout match played at night. The change in conditions from evening to night was quite evident during the first semi-final, which New Zealand won against the unbeaten South African side.
England made one change to their XI to reflect the change from Sri Lankan conditions to Indian ones. Seam bowler Jamie Overton came in for legspinner Rehan Ahmed. India stuck with the same XI that won them two of four must-win games they found themselves staring at to defend the title when they lost to South Africa in the Super Eight.
That India were batting first brought in earnest the juicy match-up between Jofra Archer and India’s batters. Against Sanju Samson, Archer has bowled 23 balls for 25 runs and three wickets, but Abhishek Sharma has taken off him 61 runs in 33 balls without getting dismissed. Further down the order, Tilak Varma also has scored 36 off 16 against him.
India 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt.), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
England 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Harry Brook (capt.), 5 Tom Banton, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Liam Dawson, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Adil Rashid
