Karachi, March 1 (IANS) England have won the toss and elected to bat first against South Africa in the final Group B match of 2025 Champions Trophy at the National Stadium on Saturday. This is the final time Jos Buttler will captain England in white-ball cricket after announcing his resignation on Friday.
A win for South Africa will see them enter the semi-finals and finish as Group B toppers, while England are already out of the eight-team competition and look to sign off from a tumultuous white-ball phase in the sub-continent on a high.
After winning the toss, Buttler said Saqib Mahmood comes in for Mark Wood, who injured his right knee. “Looks a decent wicket, few cracks it in. Felt like the right time, no need to wait around and make that decision. Time to move on.”
“A bit of sadness as well, it’s an honour to captain your country, it’s something you dream about. Honoured to do it one last time and would like to go out with a good performance,” he said.
South Africa will be led by Aiden Markram, as regular skipper Temba Bavuma and Tony de Zorzi are out due to illness. Tristan Stubbs will open the batting, with Heinrich Klaasen coming into the middle order.
“Happy to chase against a strong English team. Not too disappointed. Unfortunate that they (Bavuma and de Zorzi) miss out, but hopefully they will recover. Our last game (against Australia) got rained out, we had a few training sessions, we are ready for this game,” he said.
Playing XIs
England: Philip Salt, Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith (wk), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (captain), Liam Livingstone, Jamie Overton, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, and Saqib Mahmood
South Africa: Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram (captain), Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, and Lungi Ngidi
–IANS
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