NEW DELHI: Unbeaten India will defend a total for the first time in this ICC World Cup, as England captain Jos Buttler won the toss and opted to bowl first in Lucknow on Sunday.
India captain Rohit Sharma chose to retain the same playing eleven from the match against New Zealand. Defending champions England too went in with the same team that lost to Sri Lanka.
Hardik Pandya, who missed the match against New Zealand because of an ankle injury, was unavailable for this match as well.
India are currently No. 2 on the points table with 10 points from five wins, while England are rock bottom in the 10-team leaderboard with just one win in five matches.
"We wanted to bat first. We have had a good time batting second," Rohit said at the toss.
"Looks like a good pitch. It's a new surface that has been relayed. It has played well for the 100 overs...It's always good to have a break (between matches). It's nice to come back here and get back into business."
Rohit's counterpart Buttler said it's a "gut decision" to bowl first.
"It's a great occasion and hopefully today we bring our best," said the England captain. "We haven't done ourselves justice. Today we want to put up a show and play for pride. Playing in front of a full crowd and against India, it's a great occasion."
PLAYING XIs
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (c/wk), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
