England (confirmed): Phil Salt, Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith (wk), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (c), Liam Livingstone, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.
Not since 2011 have Australia’s men gone into a global tournament without at least one of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc at their disposal; a golden opportunity, one would think, and not least on a Lahore surface tipped to be full of runs.
Ben Duckett caused a stir during the recent 3-0 defeat in India when he said he did not care about the whitewash if England went on to win the Champions Trophy; a statement that saw its qualifier widely ignored and annoyed a good deal of supporters in the process.
Australia (possible): Travis Head, Matt Short, Steve Smith (c), Josh Inglis (wk), Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Spencer Johnson.
Jos Buttler called it a “brutal” format before England’s opener against Australia in Lahore on Saturday, while his opposite number, Steve Smith, spoke of needing a “quarter-final” mentality.
