All eyes will be on the sky and then on Virat Kohli as India face England in the semifinal of the 2024 T20 World Cup. England had defeated India by 10 wickets in the 2022 semifinal on their way to their second T20 World Cup title. India have been the stronger side going into the game in Guyana though, being one of just two sides to have stayed unbeaten thus far in the tournament, with the other being South Africa.
There is significant danger of the match being acutely affected by rain. There is no reserve day for this game as it is being held on the morning of July 27 (local time), just a day before the final which at 10.30am local time on Saturday. A washout would result in India going through because they won their Super Eight group.
India have been relentless in this tournament and almost all of their major players have stepped up at various points of it. This includes Virat Kohli to a certain extent, although his contributions in USA and the West Indies have been far below his usual lofty standards. Kohli could only manage scores of 1, 4 and 0 in India's group stage matches in New York. In the Super Eights, he scored a run-a-ball 24 against Afghanistan and then made his most meaningful contribution with the bat thus far in the tournament against Bangladesh by scoring 37 in 28 balls.
Kohli was then dismissed for a five-ball duck in their final group game against Australia. India won all of the games they have played thus far which means that Kohli's innings haven't really affected the final outcome negatively but they would be hoping that their talisman, one of their two seniormost and most illustrious batters, come good in the big match.
{{/usCountry}}Kohli was then dismissed for a five-ball duck in their final group game against Australia. India won all of the games they have played thus far which means that Kohli's innings haven't really affected the final outcome negatively but they would be hoping that their talisman, one of their two seniormost and most illustrious batters, come good in the big match.
{{/usCountry}}Their other senior batter, captain Rohit Sharma, also had a stop-start tournament before exploding in their previous game against Australia. Rohit had scored an unbeaten 52 against Ireland in India's opening match but then fell for scores of 13, three, eight and 23 in subsequent games. Against Australia, Rohit batted with wild abandon and smashed 92 in 41 balls.
Shivam Dube finds his feet
India are unlikely to make any changes to their squad, with finisher Shivam Dube also finding his feet in the last couple of games. Dube struggled for much of this tournament but he has chipped in with a couple of crucial knocks in India's last two matches to show his worth.
India's bowling attack led by the inconquerable Jasprit Bumrah has been one of their biggest assets. Pacer Arshdeep Singh is the second highest wicket taker in the tournament while Bumrah has maintained a ridiculous economy of 4.08 in the six matches he has played thus far. Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav provided crucial breakthroughs in the middle overs against Australia which pretty much stopped their chase in its tracks. Hardik Pandya has also been valuable with both bat and ball, seemingly leaving behind the horrendous season he had in the IPL with the Mumbai Indians.
India's Likely XI vs England
Opener: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli
Middle-order: Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube
All-rounders: Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja
Bowlers: Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah