World Cup 2023: England decide to field vs India, unchanged XI for both teams

England won the toss and decided to field against India in Match 29 of the Cricket World Cup at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. England captain Jos Buttler made the right call with the coin with the defending champions desperately needing a win to keep themselves alive in the tournament. World Cup LIVE: India vs England in Lucknow England, with one win in five matches, are bottom of the points table and need a win to harbour any hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup. However, even if they win all four remaining matches, it may not be enough to take them through. World Cup 2023: News | Schedule | Results | Points table India, meanwhile, are unbeaten in the home World Cup with five wins in five matches and are second on net run rate. South Africa, who have played one game more than India, are top of the standings.

At the toss in Lucknow, Buttler acknowledged that the 2019 champions haven’t done themselves justice with their performance. They have beaten just Bangladesh so far while going down to New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and South Africa. “We are going to bowl first today. Not anything in particular, it’s a gut decision. It’s a great occasion and hopefully, today we bring our best. Today, we want to put up a good show. We haven’t done ourselves justice, today we want to put up a show and play for pride. Playing in front of a full crowd and against India, it’s a great occasion,” said Buttler. India come into this fixture after a week’s break with their last outing coming against New Zealand in Dharmsala on 22 October. “It’s always good to have a break. It’s nice to come back here and get back into business,” said Rohit Sharma on the break. Rohit said India wanted to bat regardless. “We wanted to bat first, we have had a good time batting second. Looks like a good pitch, it’s a new surface which has been relayed here. It has played well for the 100 overs. I mean it’s quite important to think like that but it’s important to get the two points. We have played some good cricket.” India will thus bat first for the first time this World Cup having chased successfully in all their previous five matches. In team composition, they remain unchanged to shun suggestions that R Ashwin could come in as a third spin-bowling option. England, too, are unchanged from their last outing. India XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj England XI: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler(w/c), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.