Mumbai: England won the toss and elected to field first against India in Semifinal 2 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday. Both sides are playing for a place in the final against New Zealand.
England made one change in their playing XI, bringing in Jamie Overton for Rehan Ahmed, while India retained the same side that won against the West Indies in their last Super 8 match
England captain Harry Brook said it looks like a good wicket for chasing. “Looks a good wicket, hope to get a good start and then chase it down. India have a lot more experience, we’ll try and assess conditions and play at our best. T20 is fickle. The way we’ve played, we’ve scraped through and hold us in good stead,” he said at the toss.
India captain Suryakumar Yadav said he would have batted first anyway. “We’d have batted. Wind around, don’t think there’ll be dew. Mood in camp is positive. We’ve tightened the screws; our brand of cricket has been different. Best wicket, credit to the curator and groundsman,” he said.
Suryakumar has a reason for considering batting first because he reckons dew will not play a big role in the match. To counter the possibility of dew later in the evening, an anti-dew repellent has been applied to the ground, which should help maintain a fair balance between the two teams.
Playing XI:
India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah
England: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (capt), Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Liam Dawson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid.
(IANS)
