England will make last-minute calls on fitness of Malan and Mark Wood as they look to spoil the party in Thursday’s Twenty20 World Cup semi-final against India, Jos Buttler said.
The world’s two top-ranked teams will clash at the Adelaide Oval for a place in Sunday’s final at the MCG against Pakistan or New Zealand.
England are sweating on the availability of batsman Malan and pace spearhead Wood.
#T20WorldCup: Trying to give David Malan, Mark Wood as much time as possible to be fit for semis, says #JosButtler
Read: https://t.co/WpBjUEQxeF pic.twitter.com/FRv57JkqPq
— Cricket Fanatic (@CricketFanatik) November 9, 2022
“We will see how they pull up. We are trying to give them as long as possible,” skipper Buttler said on Wednesday.
“Dawid was out the other day with a small niggle, Woody has had a bit of stiffness. We trust the medical team, we trust the two guys as well.”
Number three Malan injured his groin in England’s final Super 12 match against Sri Lanka and could be replaced by Phil Salt.
Buttler knows that an India side which has batsmen Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav in sparkling form will have strong backing in Adelaide, as they have done throughout the World Cup.
“We are all really excited about the match, in my opinion one of the best stadiums in the world against a brilliant Indian team which I am sure will be well supported tomorrow,” Buttler said.
“It’s going to be a great occasion and these are the times you want to be involved as a player.”
England fretting over Mark Wood’s fitness before the India-England Semis. He did bowl a few, not full tilt, a day before the game and didn’t look all that comfortable #IndvEng pic.twitter.com/ykA778hVTl
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) November 9, 2022
Buttler also knows that those Indian fans will be hoping for victory to set up a blockbuster final against arch-rivals Pakistan.
“We certainly don’t want an India-Pakistan final,” added the batsman-wicketkeeper, who took over the England white-ball captaincy earlier this year from Eoin Morgan.
Read more: England pacer Mark Wood keen on learning skills from Haris Rauf
“So trying to do what we can to make sure that it doesn’t happen.”
AFP story with additional input by Global Village Space news desk.