England sends India in to bat in T20 World Cup semifinal

England won the toss and opted to bowl first against India on Thursday despite the absence of paceman Mark Wood for the Twenty20 World Cup semifinal.

England made two injury-enforced changes to its lineup, with Wood replaced by Chris Jordan and Philip Salt coming in for veteran batter Dawid Malan.

India fielded the same XI that featured against Zimbabwe in its last Super 12 game on Sunday, retaining Rishabh Pant as keeper-batter ahead of Dinesh Karthik.

Selectors also stuck with left-arm paceman Axar Patel rather than recall legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal.

India finished atop Group 2 with four wins from five games, starting with a last-over win over archrival Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Oct. 23. Pakistan has already secured a spot in Sunday’s final at the MCG after beating 2021 finalist New Zealand by seven wickets in the first semifinal in Sydney on Wednesday.

The pitch at the Adelaide Oval is a used one. It was last deployed for the Group 1 double header on Nov. 4, with New Zealand-Ireland and Australia-Afghanistan all featuring.

The wicket is expected to slow down during the game, but should be ideal for batting early.

The team winning the toss in the last 11 T20Is at the Adelaide Oval has lost all 11 games.

India and England have never met in the knockout phase of the T20 World Cup. They last met in the group stage of the inaugural 2007 edition, when Yuvraj Singh hit six consecutive sixes off Stuart Broad at Durban and India won the title.

England won the T20 World Cup tittle in 2010.

India: Lokesh Rahul, Rohit Sharma (captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh.

England: Jos Buttler (captain), Alex Hales, Philip Salt, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid.