England wins toss, opts to bat against Pakistan

Kalkutta: England has won the toss against Pakistan for its last and challenging match of ICC World Cup 2023.

According to details, the Green Shirts are struggling with a strange game of statistics to reach the semi-finals. The match between Pakistan and England is being played today at Eden Gardens Kolkata at 1:30pm.

If Pakistan scores 300 runs while batting first in the match, then they have to bowl England out for 13 runs, (i.e., win by 288 runs or more), while if Pakistan bowls first, they have to bowl out England for 50 runs. And it has to achieve this target in two and a half overs i.e. 15 balls.

Squads

Pakistan

Babar Azam (c), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Mohannad Haris (wk), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jr., Shaheen Afridi, Usama Mir and Zaman Khan.

England

Jos Buttler (c), Ben Stokes, Dawin Malan, Harry Brook, Joe Root, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Adil Rashid, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Recce Topley.

It is pertinent to mention that Pakistani team was declared the favorite by the experts before the tournament, but in the third consecutive World Cup, Pakistani team is facing difficulty in getting the honor of playing the semi-finals.

This will be the fifth time in six World Cups since 1999 that a Pakistani team could fail to make it to the semi-finals.