England vs Afghanistan – Cricket World Cup LIVE: Ben Stokes misses out again as Jos Buttler’s side bowl first

The pitch has been good in Delhi with four hundreds so far at the ground.

South Africa posted over 400 not too long ago and the pitch won’t spin too much, with spin very much Afghanistan’s strong point.

They will be confident chasing, but the bowling outfit is decent. Rashid Khan is yet to show his best but we know his skills, as well as those of the likes of Nabi, Mujeeb and Naveen.

Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi syas he wanted to bowl too but he makes one change to his side that lost to India.

Gurbaz, Zadran, Shah, Shahidi, Omarzai, Nabi, Alikhil, Rashid, Mujeeb, Naveen-ul-Haq, Farooqi is their team.

So England are unchanged, which means no Ben Stokes again today.

Bairstow, Malan, Root, Brook, Buttler, Livingstone, Woakes, Curran, Rashid, Wood, Topley. That’s the team.

Jos Buttler calls correctly and he wants to bowl.

‘No particualr reason,’ he says. Just fancies a chase.

They go unchanged with their side.

England’s opponents had hopes of making a statement or two during this tournament but that’s not materialised so far.

An opening-game heavy loss to Bangladesh came before a hammering from India, so they need to get on the board today if they are to have any chance in the world of qualifying.

They’re up against it, though coach and former England star Jonathan Trott is backing his side.

Ben Stokes provided one of the major talking points pre-tournament, with the Test captain coming out of ODI retirement to play in this World Cup.

It looked for all the world that he would be batting at No 4, but an injury has kept him out of both games so far.

His good friend and team-mate Joe Root has revealed that he’s on the mend, but that he may not be risked in today’s game.

We will find out in 10 minutes.

So as aforementioend, England got off to the worst possible start to this tournament as they were ahmmered by New Zealand in their opening game.

After posting a measly 282/9, 2019’s runners up chased down the total in 36.2 overs, with Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra smashing unbeaten centuries.

Things went better last time out, however, with Dawid Malan’s 140 setting up the defending champions for a score of 364/9, and Reece Topley then taking 4/43 as Buttler and Co bowled out their opponents for 227.

Today will be the next step in England’s defence.

Gooooood morning one and all and welcome to Mail Sport’s live coverage of England vs Afghanistan in the ODI World Cup.

We’re still early on in the competition but it’s an important game for Jos Buttler’s side following and opening-day defeat to New Zealand, though they did get the better of Bangledesh in their second match.

The defending champions will be favourites going into this one, but it’s never quite as easy as that.

The game will get underway at 9:30, with news from the middle expected at 9.