England won the toss on Sunday morning and elected to bowl first in what will be a crucial game for Afghanistan, which has suffered heavy defeats in both their opening games, by six wickets to Bangladesh and by eight wickets to India.

They have made one change with Najibullah Zadran losing his place in the middle order to Ikram Alikhil.

The two countries have only met twice before with England winning convincingly on both occasions – by nine wickets at the 2015 World Cup in Sydney and 150 runs in Manchester four years ago.

Afghanistan, meanwhile, are currently at the bottom of the points table with two losses from the two matches they have played.

The match against India was also played at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi so Afghanistan will at least be familiar with the conditions.

Batters are expected to play a major role in England’s clash against Afghanistan. In many ways, the defending World Cup champions finally arrived at the tournament in their second game in Dharamsala. After a nine-wicket loss in Ahmedabad against New Zealand, their players fired in all departments against Bangladesh as England managed a 137-run win.

The Jos Buttler-led side would hope to continue a similar run in Delhi. The Arun Jaitley wicket has proved to be good for batting thus far. And England batters, reputed for their aggressive approach, can make the most of the likely suitable conditions when at the crease.

The Afghanistan side would love to get their act together in the World Cup. They’ve impressed in phases but haven’t been able to click as a unit but would surely like their senior players, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, to give a better account of themselves in the upcoming matches.

Squads

Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Naveen ul Haq.

England: Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.

Key Players

Afghanistan – Mohammad Nabi
Though they haven’t won a single ODI since July, Afghanistan came close to causing a major upset against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup at the back of a belligerent 65 from 32 balls by Mohammad Nabi.

Nabi is one of the veterans of the Afghanistan setup, who continues to contribute in all departments on and off the field. He might have missed out in the first two games of the tournament, but England would ignore Nabi at their own risk.

The hard-hitting lower-order batter is also a canny customer with the ball. And Afghanistan would love for Nabi to be at his very best in both departments.

England – Reece Topley
After a lackluster showing with the ball in Ahmedabad, England were on top of their game in Dharamsala. A big factor was Reece Topley’s 4/43 which included the big wickets of Shakib Al Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mushfiqur Rahim.

England would like to complement their all-out attacking approach with the willow with a new-ball operator who can assure them of early breakthroughs going ahead in the tournament. Topley did well in Dharamsala, and he can reassure England greatly if he does well in Delhi too.

For fans in Afghanistan

Ariana Television Network is the official broadcasting partner in Afghanistan and has the exclusive rights to broadcast and stream Cricket World Cup 2023 matches into the homes of fans, live, each day.

As we fight the global quest to Stop Piracy, we appeal to our fans in Afghanistan to tune in to Ariana Television or visit www.arianatelevision.com, and stream matches live.

Please don’t support pirate broadcasters and websites streaming pirated versions!

Afghanistan’s fixtures still to come, that will be broadcast live on Ariana Television are as follows:

• Afghanistan vs England: Sunday, October 15, 2023, Delhi
• Afghanistan vs New Zealand: Wednesday, October 18, 2023, Chennai
• Afghanistan vs Pakistan: Monday, October 23, 2023, Chennai
• Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka: Monday, October 30, 2023, Pune
• Afghanistan vs Netherlands: Friday, November 3, 2023, Lucknow
• Afghanistan vs Australia: Tuesday, November 7, 2023, Mumbai
• Afghanistan vs South Afri