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Once again, rain played spoilsport in the World Cup 2023 warm-up game. Hosts India and defending champions England were all set to test their players in the warm-up clash at Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati. However, soon after the coin toss, dark clouds hovered over the stadium and heavy rain prevented skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill from walking into the middle.
The cut-off time for the match to start is 7:30 PM. The groundstaff will need at least 90 minutes to get the ground ready for the game. Meanwhile, both the teams have reached the hotel and will only return as the game is unlikely to start in current conditions.
Earlier, Rohit won the toss and opted to bat first against Jos Buttler-led side. “We gonna bat first. No particular reason, it's very hot out there. Just want to make sure that our bowlers stay fresh and bowl under the lights which is not gonna be so taxing for the bowlers. Because we have been playing lot of cricket off late, so just want to make sure that we are looking after them. We just got to play good cricket, we played 7 or 8 games recently, we want to make sure that the guys stay fresh for the 8th of October. We are playing one of the top teams and everyone (in the team) is fit and ready to go,” the 36-year-old said.
“To be in India ahead of what's gonna be a really exciting World Cup, for us it is very much about getting out there and getting moving. We had a long travel to get there, we will be a bit cautious today. There is a lot of experience in our game, everything including this game is about preparing for that (World Cup opener against New Zealand) match. We have plenty of guys who played a lot of IPL cricket here in India and really excited about today. All the players are fit and ready to go,” Buttler said at the coin toss.
India (Batting XI, Fielding XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami
England (Batting XI, Fielding XI): Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler(w/c), Liam Livingstone, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Gus Atkinson, Reece Topley, Mark Wood
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