England skipper Jos Buttler won the toss and opted to bowl first against India in an ODI World Cup 2023 match at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday.

Both India and England are unchanged for the clash. This will be the first time India bat first in this ongoing World Cup.

“We are going to bowl first today. Not anything in particular, it’s a gut decision. It’s a great occasion and hopefully, today we bring our best. Today, we want to put up a good show. We haven’t done ourselves justice, today we want to put up a show and play for pride,” said Buttler at the toss.

“Playing in front of a full crowd and against India, it’s a great occasion. We are going with the same team,” he added.

On the other hand, Rohit Sharma, who is leading the Indian team for the 100th time in international cricket, is looking forward to bat first.

“We wanted to bat first, we had a good time batting second. Looks like a good pitch, it’s a new surface which has been relayed here. It has played well for the 100 overs. I mean it’s quite important to think like that but it’s important to get the two points. We have played some good cricket,” said Rohit.

“It’s always good to have a break. It’s nice to come back here and get back into business. We are playing the same team we played in the last game,” he added.

Hosts India are the only unbeaten side so far in the tournament, winning all five of their matches. Defending champions England, on the other hand, haven’t performed as per the expectations and are languishing at the bottom of the points table.

Playing XIs:

India: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler(w/c), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood