ICC

England positioned ninth on the points table are running on the knife’s edge and are almost out of the semis race.

A commendable 10th-wicket partnership between Keshav Maharaj and Tabrez Shamsi saw Pakistan's fourth consecutive defeat for the first time in World Cup history.

Cut to now and India have very much lived up to the pre-tournament billing of being the hot favourites – winning five out of five matches and looking at a top-two finish in the points table.

Electing to bat first, Pakistan were reduced to 38 for two as Jansen landed a couple of early blows sending back openers Abdullah Shafique (9) and Imam-ul-Haq (23) to the pavilion by the seventh over.

England were bowled out for 156 on Thursday at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, which Sri Lanka chased down in 26 overs to hand the Three Lions an eight-wicket loss, their fourth defeat in five games at the showpiece event.

Opener Gurbaz struck a 53-ball 65 while his partner Zadran anchored the innings with a 113-ball 87 as they raised 130 runs for the first wicket. Rahmat Shah, who scored an unbeaten 77 off 84 deliveries and shared an unbeaten 86-run partnership for the third wicket with skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (48 not out), played a key role as Afghanistan reached 286/2 in 49 overs after restricting Pakistan to 282/7 in 50 overs.

Entering the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup in India as defending champions, England have lost three out of four matches – to New Zealand, Afghanistan and South Africa, while their lone win came against Bangladesh – leaving their hopes of reaching semi-finals hanging by a thread.

Bedi, considered to be one of the greatest left-arm spinners to have played the game, was part of the famous Indian spin quartet alongside Erapalli Prasanna, B.S. Chandrashekar and S. Venkataraghavan that won India many matches in both home and overseas conditions in the 1970s.  

Kuldeep came into the World Cup on the back of picking up the Player of the Tournament award in India’s triumph at the Asia Cup. As of now, he’s picked eight scalps in India's unbeaten run of five matches till now. Against New Zealand, he was hit for 48 runs in five overs, before coming back to take two wickets and end up with figures of 2-73.

Carse, who generally operates in the middle-overs phase in 50-over games, made his international debut for England in 2021 and has played 12 ODI appearances so far, taking 14 wickets. He made his T20I debut in the bilateral series against New Zealand in September and impressed with figures of 3-23.