Mumbai, Mar 4 (PTI) Having not exactly sailed into the T20 World Cup semi-finals, India must now negotiate a potent spin threat from a dangerous England side as both teams chase perfection in Thursday’s high-pressure knockout game at the Wankhede Stadium.

Overwhelming favourites at the start of the tournament, India have not been able to stitch together a perfect game against stronger sides in the competition.

However, they have served themselves well by adopting a flexible approach after the pasting at the hands of South Africa in their Super 8 opener.

Sanju Samson was brought back to the side to break the predictability of a left-handed top-three in the powerplay and that move has worked brilliantly.

More than 10 years after his India debut, Samson finally delivered on the big stage with a career-defining 97 not out in a virtual quarterfinal against the West Indies.

The 31-year-old’s confidence must be sky high after that special effort and India would be hoping that rubs off on his opening partner Abhishek Sharma.

Such are the ways of the game that Abhishek was in the form of his life leading into the ICC event while Samson had to be dropped from the playing eleven after a dismal run against New Zealand in the bilaterals.

The tables have turned now and Abhishek is in desperate need of a confidence boosting innings. The southpaw did get a fifty against Zimbabwe in the Super 8 but remains far from his ballistic best.

England will have their plans ready for the two openers. Expect a barrage of short balls into the body from Jofra Archer to test Samson, who has struggled against the England tearaway in the past, while Will Jacks could trouble Sharma with his off-spin in the powerplay.

Left-arm spinner Liam Dawson has also bowled in the first six overs while the hosts need to be at their best against a wily Adil Rashid in the middle overs. The openers and the rest of the Indian batters did have all those challenges in mind in a three-hour long practice session on Tuesday.

Ishan Kishan has gone off the boil after a sensational start to the tournament and would be backing himself to fire at his former IPL home ground.

The same goes for the current Mumbai Indians stars in the national team – captain Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya — who batted for more than two hours in the main net session ahead of the semifinal.

Having been moved down the order to help the team’s cause, Tilak has impressed one and all with his ball striking in the middle-order, having not got the same fluency at number three earlier in the competition.

At a ground with short boundaries, the spin duo of Axar Patel and Varun Chakaravarthy will have no room for error. The mystery spinner needs to find his lengths consistently after proving a tad expensive against the West Indies and South Africa.

Jasprit Bumrah has been phenomenal as usual but slight improvement is needed from the bowlers in the last five overs. It will be interesting to see how Surya uses his resources with Shivam Dube proving to be a risky sixth bowling option.

Playing Kuldeep Yadav is always a tempting prospect but India are unlikely to tinker with their playing eleven.

India played their tournament opener here a month ago and were troubled by the medium pace of Shadley van Schalkwyk on a two-paced surface.

The pitch reserved for the semifinal has been used twice in the tournament – when West Indies defended 196 against England and Italy cantered to a 10-wicket win over Nepal after bowling the opposition out for 123.

Both India and England find themselves pitted against each other for the third T20 World Cup semifinal in a row. England had hammered India on way to the title in 2022 before the latter got their revenge in Guyana in 2024.

In the latest edition England have relied on the individual brilliance of Harry Brook and Jacks to bail them out of tricky situations. All-rounder Sam Curran too has played his part well.

The focus has been on out-of-form Jos Buttler heading into the contest and it remains to be seen if the England white-ball great can regain his rhythm in a crunch game.

The sides are quite familiar with each other and as Curran said on Tuesday, there will be no secrets to throw at each other.

On the team’s up and down run thus far, Curran had a pragmatic view.

“It doesn’t really matter now; it comes down to the World Cup semifinal. If there’s ever a time we want to play our perfect game, it’s probably Thursday night,” he said.

Teams

India: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.

England: Harry Brook (c), Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Tom Banton, Jacob Bethell, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Liam Dawson, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Josh Tongue, Luke Wood.

Match starts 7 pm IST. PTI

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