India cricket team are expected to persist with the same playing XI for the T20 semi-final clash against England on Thursday in Mumbai. Suryakumar Yadav and co. clinched a win in a must-win clash against West Indies in their final Super 8 contest to keep their campaign on track and make it to the top four. Bringing Sanju Samson back into the playing XI worked wonders for India in terms of finding the perfect left-right combination, especially after his 97-run knock against WI. It looks like the Men in Blue will be making no changes to their line-up and will be betting on the existing set of players to ensure that they are through to their second straight T20 WC final.
Predicted India playing XI vs England
| Position | Player | Role |
| 1. | Abhishek Sharma | Opener |
| 2. | Sanju Samson (WK) | Opener |
| 3. | Ishan Kishan | Batter |
| 4. | Suryakumar Yadav (C) | Batter |
| 5. | Tilak Varma | Batter |
| 6. | Hardik Pandya | All-rounder |
| 7. | Shivam Dube | All-rounder |
| 8. | Axar Patel | All-rounder |
| 9. | Jasprit Bumrah | Pacer |
| 10. | Arshdeep Singh | Pacer |
| 11. | Varun Chakravarthy | Spinner |
Given that Mumbai has been favouring the batters more than the bowlers in the ongoing tournament, India are expected to field a batting-heavy unit. This means, the co-hosts will not be requiring the services of Kuldeep Yadav in the semi-final contest against England and will persist with Varun as a specialist and Axar as an all-rounder in the side, which also give them an additional batter in their line-up against a formidable England unit. Kuldeep has featured in just one game in this T20 WC so far, where he picked up just 1 wicket. Patel, on the other hand, has 7 wickets to his name from 5 matches but hasn’t batted much in the tournament thus far.
Bumrah and Arshdeep will continue to spearhead the pace department, with Hardik serving as a third fiddle at a venue where both Jasprit and Pandya are very familiar with – the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
This game also marks an important opportunity for Kishan, SKY and Varma to shine, given that it is the home ground in the IPL for the latter two and that all three have played countless number of T20 matches at the venue in the past. While Tilak has managed to fire in the last few games, the India captain and Ishan’s form is a point of concern, especially since they have not managed to convert starts into good knocks in the last few games.
All eyes and expectations will be on Samson to replicate his knock from the game against West Indies. Meanwhile, his opening partner Sharma has been sub-par in the T20 World Cup so far and the team will be hoping to get the best version of the explosive opener in the game against England.
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