England are still without the services of Ben Stokes for their third game of the 2023 World Cup against Afghanistan. Jos Buttler named an unchanged XI for the clash in Delhi today (October 15).
Stokes has a hip problem and missed England’s first two matches of the tournament. However, there was a silver lining that Stokes could return to action against Afghanistan. Joe Root said in his pre-match press conference: “Ben seems to be getting better day by day. He trained really well last night and obviously had a long stroke, but he ran well and he’s feeling good. It seems like it’s happening, so all good signs.”
However, England opted to stick with the same eleven that defeated Bangladesh by 137 runs on Tuesday (October 10). There were some doubts about Chris Woakes’ health as he fell ill between games, but he recovered in time to play.
England 11: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (c & wk), Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Wolk Su, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Reece Topley.
Afghanistan XI: Rahmanullah Gulbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikil (wk) ), Rashid Khan, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Afghanistan has made changes in its lineup compared to the team that lost badly to India last week. Najibullah Zadran will replace Ikram Aliki and will guard the wickets in place of Gulbaz. Afghanistan lost to India by eight wickets in Delhi, with Rohit Sharma scoring the fastest run by an Indian player of the century.
The result was our third consecutive loss in the tournament. In the 2019 edition they lost all nine of his matches, and his only win over Scotland was in 2015.
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