England ask Australia to bat

England skipper Eoin Morgan won the toss and asked Australia to bat first in today's marquee fixture of the World Cup at Lord's.

Overnight rain and overcast conditions prompted to make the decision for England, who go with an unchanged XI, with fast-bowler Jofra Archer passing a fitness test early in the morning.

Australia make two changes, with Jason Behrendorff replacing Nathan Coulter-Nile and Nathan Lyon getting a game in place of Adam Zampa.

Playing XIs:

England: 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 James Vince, 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

Australia: 1 Aaron Finch (capt), 2 David Warner, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Jason Behrendorff, 9 Pat Cummins, 10 Mitchell Starc, 11 Nathan Lyon

Australia come into this game with an eye on the semifinals, having bagged 10 points from six matches. The much-fancied and top-ranked England, however, find themselves in a bit of a pickle with eight points from six matches, with at least three sub-continent teams breathing heavily down their neck.

Those three teams namely Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, will be eager to pounce on a slip from the hosts today.

Source: thedailystar