Champions Trophy: England eyes victory to stay afloat

LAHORE: A battered England will hope to keep its Champions Trophy hopes alive when it faces a dangerous Afghanistan in a crucial group B match here on Wednesday.

A defeat here would severely dent both the teams’ dreams of a semifinal berth in the tournament, as South Africa and Australia have already notched up three points.

The days of England’s white ball supremacy are far behind now, as the former world champion’s creaking unit even failed to defend a 350-plus total against Australia in its tournament opener.

While England may take some comfort in posting a big total, the reality is that it came against an Australian side missing its premier pacers – Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood.

The English bowlers then failed to stop an Australian line-up that did not have lead batters such as injured Mitchell Marsh and now-retired Marcus Stoinis.

So, England will need to show huge improvement against Afghanistan on both those counts.

Afghanistan’s three-pronged spin attack, consisting of Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad and Mohammad Nabi, has the potential to trouble even the best, and England batters’ recent outings against slow bowlers are not confidence-inspiring either.

England also suffered a setback as all-rounder Brydon Carse has been ruled out of the tournament with a toe injury. He has been replaced by leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed in an effort to strengthen its spin department.

This move will also provide Adil Rashid with proper backing, as, until now, Liam Livingstone had been performing that role with his mixed bag of off-spin, leg-spin, and seam-up deliveries.

But England’s real problem lies in the patchy form of opener Phil Salt and Harry Brook in the middle-order.

Salt’s only hundred in the format was in 2022 and since then the Welshman has not really converted his starts, often getting out after a quick 30 or 40.

Brook also offers a similar tale. The Yorkshire man looked in prime form during the home ODIs against Australia last year, hammering a hundred and two fifties in a three-match series.

However, Brook has been riddled with self-doubts against spinners since the tour to India, and fell to Aussie leg-spinner Adam Zampa in the last match.

Now, the 26-year-old will have to negate three high-quality tweakers against Afghanistan.

Rain leads to no result in Rawalpindi

The Champions Trophy match between Australia and South Africa was abandoned here on Tuesday due to persistent rain, forcing the two Group B heavyweights to share a point each.

The weather did not allow even the toss to be completed. With the conditions not getting any better, the match officials called off the game a little more than three hours after the scheduled start time.

The cut-off time for the game was 7.32 pm but the officials made the call much earlier with no weather improvement in sight.

After the no result, South Africa and Australia shared one point each and it means that Wednesday’s contest between England and Afghanistan has turned into a virtual knockout.