World Cup 2023:  England win toss, opt to bowl first against Afghanistan

England’s skipper Jos Buttler has won the toss and invited Afghanistan to bat first against Afghanistan in the 13th match of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday.

England is coming into this game riding high on confidence after beating Bangladesh in their previous match and will be eying to continue its winning run in the tournament.

On the other hand, Afghanistan has failed to secure a win in their previous two encounters in the ongoing tournament.

After the toss England’s skipper said, “Looks a pretty good batting wicket, we’re playing a talented tough team but we’ll focus on ourselves. We improved a lot from the first game to the second game, we pride ourselves on our intensity”. Buttler also mentioned that the pitch at Delhi is a pretty good batting wicket.

Afagnistan’s skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi confirmed that Ikram Alikhil has been included in the playing XI replacing Najib in the squad.

Shahidi said, “We wanted to bowl first, but this is a 100-over game, we’ll have to bat well. Looks like a batting pitch, expecting the same conditions as the last game. Hopeful of doing well and putting pressure on them. We’ve good spin options and anything around 300 should be a good score. One change, Najib is not playing, Ikram replaces him”.

England playing XI

Jonny Bairstow (Wk/C), Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Reece Topley.

📋 TEAM NEWS!

We're unchanged from Tuesday's win ✊ #EnglandCricket | #CWC23 pic.twitter.com/QZsiedhx96

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) October 15, 2023

Afghanistan playing XI

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi.

🚨 STARTING XI 🚨

We are going with a solitary change from our previous game ☝️

➡️ Najibullah Zadran misses out
⬅️ Ikram Alikhil comes in

Here's our full XI 👇#AfghanAtalan | #CWC23 | #AFGvENG | #WarzaMaidanGata pic.twitter.com/tGpNaruIYc

— Afghanistan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) October 15, 2023