England are still without the services of Ben Stokes for their third game of the 2023 World Cup against Afghanistan. Jos Buttler named an unchanged XI for the clash in Delhi today (October 15).

Stokes has been suffering with a hip niggle which kept him out of England’s first two games of the tournament. However, there were positive signs that Stokes could be in line for a return against Afghanistan. Joe Root said in the pre-match press conference “Ben seems to be getting better day on day. He trained really well last night, obviously had a long bat, did his running, seems to be improving, so all good signs.”

However, England opted to stick with the same XI that beat Bangladesh by 137 runs on Tuesday (October 10). There were some doubts over Chris Woakes’ fitness after he fell ill in between the matches, but he has recovered in time to be a part of the fixture.

England’s XI: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (c & wk), Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Reece Topley.

Afghanistan’s XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi.

Afghanistan have made one change to their lineup from the side that lost heavily to India last week. Najibullah Zadran has made way for Ikram Alikhi, who will also keep wicket instead of Gurbaz. Afghanistan were thumped by eight wickets by India in Delhi, with Rohit Sharma hitting the fastest ever century by an India player.

The result was their third straight defeat in the tournament. They had lost all nine matches at the 2019 edition, and had beaten only Scotland in 2015.

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