England have been forced to make two changes to their side for their cut-throat semi-final against India at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup as skipper Jos Buttler won the toss and elected to bowl first at Adelaide Oval on Thursday.
Fast bowler Mark Wood (hip) and key batter Dawid Malan (groin) were ruled out prior to the toss, with veteran seamer Chris Jordan and top-order batter Phil Salt named as their replacements.
The loss of Wood in particular is a blow to England, with the pacer already having picked up nine wickets at the T20 World Cup and regularly hit speeds in excess of 150 km/h.
His spot in the XI will be taken by Jordan, who is a veteran of 82 T20I and last featured for England during their series against Australia just prior to the start of the T20 World Cup.
Salt didn’t play during that same series, with the 26-year-old’s last match for England coming during their seven-game series in Pakistan at the start of October.
Buttler said prior to Thursday’s match that he has confidence in all members of his talented squad.
“We’ve got some fantastic players who have not yet played in the tournament, and they’re all desperate to make their mark if given a chance,” Buttler said.
“I have full faith in every member of our squad, guys whether they’ve played so far or not.”
India have stuck with the same XI that defeated Zimbabwe by 73 runs in the final match of the Super 12 stage of the tournament, meaning left-hander Rishabh Pant is preferred to Dinesh Karthik.
India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
England: Alex Hales, Jos Buttler (c, wk), Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Chris Jordan
Source - ICC
-Agencies
