IND vs ENG, World Cup 2023: India aim to land knockout blow on England, seal semi-final spot; LIVE streaming and more

Hosts India and defending champions England were counted among the title favourites heading into the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India.

World Cup 2023: News | Schedule | Results | Points table

More than halfway into the tournament, and the two sides find themselves at the opposite ends of the points table. India are at the very top with five wins in as many outings while England lie second from bottom with four defeats in five games.

The two sides enter Sunday’s showdown in Lucknow with very different objectives — India aiming to become the first team to qualify for the semi-finals with a victory, and England hoping to fight for survival.

And going by their performances so far in the 13th edition of the quadrennial event, an English victory on Sunday might just be considered an upset.

Shami vs Ashwin toss up for Men in Blue

India wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul officially confirmed on Saturday the news that had been doing the rounds in the cricketing circles for a while now — that of all-rounder Hardik Pandya missing a second game in a row after sitting out of the four-wicket victory over New Zealand.

The Men in Blue ideally wouldn’t want to make too many changes to their winning combination. The team is firing on all cylinders at the moment with each department having some role to play in the five victories that have come their way in as many matches.

The dilemma that skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid face ahead of Sunday’s fixture is that of replacing one of the frontline seamers with senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who hasn’t been part of the lineup since the opening win against Australia.

With the Ekana surface likely to assist much like the one at Chepauk in the India-Australia encounter, the Men in Blue will hope for Ashwin to hunt in a pack alongside left-arm spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav. His batting skills down the order will also help extend India’s batting order.

To accommodate Ashwin, however, the Men in Blue might have to bench Mohammed Siraj, who has got important wickets throughout the campaign even if he’s proved a bit expensive at times. It will be extremely difficult for the team leadership to drop Mohammed Shami after his five for 54 against New Zealand last Sunday.

Defending champions hoping for a miracle

Nothing has been going right for the Englishmen in a campaign that might just turn out worse than their 2015 disaster in Australia and New Zealand.

They started off with a nine-wicket thrashing against the Black Caps in the tournament opener, and appeared to have bounced back with a solid 137-run thrashing of Bangladesh in Dharamsala. The Englishmen however, have lost three games in a row, including a shock 69-run loss against Afghanistan in Delhi, and are desperate to return to winning ways.

While it was the bowling department that was a primary area of concern in their first two outings of the tournament, their batting unit too has crumbled in each of their last three outings — the only time they’ve crossed 200 in that period was against Afghanistan, and even then they were reduced to 169/8.

The senior members of the side will have to take responsiblity on this front, starting with the captain himself, with Jos Buttler collecting a total of 95 runs in five outings so far, 43 of which came against New Zealand.

Read | What has gone wrong with England in ODIs since 2019 triumph

Talismanic all-rounder Ben Stokes too hasn’t quite hit the ball out of the park in the figurative sense, registering scores of 5 and 43 in his two appearances after missing the first three matches due to injury.

England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick meanwhile, conceded the team hadn’t been consistent enough in their title defence.

“We’re always looking to put pressure back on oppositions, bowlers, as much as we can while reading the situation and be smart in those situations. And we’ve done it occasionally. We’ve done it now and again.

“We just haven’t done it consistently with enough people really reading the situation, taking the right options, and then putting it all together to get that score,” the ex-England opener added during the pre-match press conference.

India vs England World Cup 2023 match date

The India vs England Cricket World Cup match will be played on Sunday, 29 October.

India vs England World Cup 2023 match time

The India vs England Cricket World Cup match will start at 2 PM IST. The toss will take place at 1.30 PM IST.

India vs England World Cup 2023 match venue

The India vs England Cricket World Cup match will be played at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

India vs England World Cup 2023 match LIVE Streaming

The India vs England Cricket World Cup match will be broadcast live on Star Sports Network and live streaming will be available on Disney+ Hotstar.

India vs England head-to-head

India lead England 57-44 in terms of head-to-head record in ODIs, the two sides having clashed 106 times in the format since 1974. Since the 2019 World Cup, the two sides have met six times, with India having won four of those encounters.

England however, lead in the World Cup H2H 4-3 in eight meetings, with one match (Bengaluru, 2011) ending in a high-scoring tie. The Eoin Morgan-led English side had won the previous meeting at the showpiece event by 31 runs at Edgbaston in Birmingham.

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, 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(wk/c), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Sam Curran, Brydon Carse, Harry Brook, Gus Atkinson.