India vs England ODI World Cup warm-up contest called off as rain plays spoilsport in Guwahati

India’s warm-up match against defending champions England was called off on Saturday, September 30 after rain played spoilsport in Guwahati. The match highly anticipated by many to be a potential World Cup final was abandoned without a ball being bowled leaving both teams with only one warm-up match to play after Saturday. India and England are set to meet in the league phase of the World Cup on Sunday, October 29 in Lucknow.

Match called off

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Both teams playing in their first warm-up match, the eyes of the world were cast on big boys like Jos Buttler, Virat Kohli, Ben Stokes and Rohit Sharma. However, rain was the feature of the day with both camps unable to warm up on a wet day in Guwahati. Scheduled to start at 2:30 PM, the umpires after close inspection of conditions and heavy drizzling, decided to abandon the match at 5:40 PM IST.

While big names were expected to play in the match, the focus was also on the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Harry Brook. Both stars were initially omitted from the provisional squad but made the cut for the final 15-member squad. Ashwin returned to the ODI fold in the Australia series earlier in the month while Brook was favoured ahead of Jason Roy in the England squad. Roy played a pivotal role in England’s 2019 World Cup success but missed out due to a reported injury.

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Earlier, England’s Jonny Bairstow showed his displeasure traveling to Guwahati as it took them 38 hours to reach the destination after multiple flights. With the contest washed out, this only added to the English team’s frustration as they will now have only one game to prepare before the main tournament gets underway.

The abandoned match now leaves both India and England with one warm-up match against the Netherlands and Bangladesh respectively. India will take on the Dutch on Tuesday, October 3 while England will take on Bangladesh on Monday. The defending champions will then face New Zealand in the curtain-raiser contest on Thursday in a repeat of the 2019 edition’s final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

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