Bruised England eye comeback vs Afghans

A battered England will hope to keep their Champions Trophy hopes alive when they face a dangerous Afghanistan in a crucial group B match here on Wednesday.

- Agencies

LAHORE:

A defeat here would severely dent both the teams' dreams of a semi-final berth in the tournament, as South Africa and Australia have already notched up two points.

The days of England's white-ball supremacy are far behind now, as the former world champions' creaking unit even failed to defend a 350-plus total against Australia in their tournament opener.

While England may take some comfort in posting a massive total, the reality is that it came against an Australian side missing their premier pacers — Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood.

The English bowlers then failed to stop an Australian line-up that did not have lead batters such as injured Mitchell Marsh and now-retired Marcus Stoinis.

So, England will need to show massive improvement against Afghanistan on both those counts.