It's been Just over 6 years since India and England faced each other in an ICC event match at the same venue of Edgbaston, Birmingham. India won that rain -hit and curtailed 20 over fixture by 5 runs while defending 124/8.

One of England's rarest chance to reach extreme glory and that too at home, Went out of hand within a matter of few minutes on that day. Over to 2019 ...An ICC event ..Especially a world cup at home. This time England has to cross the Indian hurdle to stay in contention to be firm in the top 4, In their penultimate game of the round -robin stage.

Having received support from fans and never seen before hype from media, England were very much enjoying the tournament until Sri Lanka and Australia gave them consecutive reality checks. This scenario has pushed them to take the risk by bringing back the yet to be fully fit Roy and Archer. Archer was seen in the nets on Saturday for a while.

India's only point of concern is the middle order crisis. Yet, Kohli's words about Vijay Shankar reads " he is close to playing a defining knock", Which suggests the Tamil Nadu all-rounder would get minimum another chance in the XI, Despite not contributing much with the bat in particular. India's subsequent fixture against Bangladesh is scheduled at the same venue on Tuesday, Which means India has two games in 3 days. Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant too spent considerable time at the nets.

Although India's tail is a touch too long, Bringing back Bhuvaneshwar in place of Shami been made virtually impossible by the latter performance with four-wicket hauls in two games. Similarly, To bring in Jadeja to the mix, Either the duo of Kuldeep and Chahal has to be disunited or Kedhar Jadhav has to be left out.

With a situation in which one victory in India's remaining 3 fixtures, Could put them in the Semifinals, It would be logical and easier to do any experiments that have to be done and dusted well before the knockout phase begins.

Jonny Bairstow's comment on Twitter which read "People are waiting for us to fail " in response to Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen's Twitter troll on Vijay Shankar's form and a suggestion to the Captain and coach of India, Has put both the players on focus for the game.

Team news

If Roy gets into the XI, Vince could make way.
England (possible): 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Mark Wood

India is likely to remain unchanged unless they want to take a call on bringing Jadeja into the XI
India: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

In the two matches at this Venue prior to this one. , Scores by teams batting first are 241/6 and 237/6 (SA vs NZ, 19th June, NZ vs PAK, 26th June.
A fresh surface is going to be used for this game.Ashley Giles, Former spinner and England's director of cricket has stated that this particular track will be the "best batting pitch of the tournament".

Stats and Trivia

• The chasing side has won each of the last five completed ODI at Edgbaston.
• The only kind of bowling Morgan averages less than 40 and strikes at less than 100 against since 2017 is left-arm fast. India doesn't have one this tournament.
• Since 2017, 75% of Jos Buttler's 50-plus scores have resulted in England wins. For Morgan, that number stands at 90%.
• India has taken nine wickets per match on an average, the best among the ten teams in this World Cup. Their average of 24.7 is also right up there.
• Shami has eight wickets in two games, including a hat-trick, but his record against England is poor - 12 wickets in ten games with a wicket every 37 balls, his third-worst bowling record against an opposition

-Kumaran Kumanan

Images - BCCI ICC Twitter