England are ready to move to another level in the biggest game of their lives against Australia at Edgbaston tomorrow, believes bowler Liam Plunkett.
The winners of the World Cup semi-final will face New Zealand or India at Lord’s on Sunday after their clash was forced into a second day by Manchester rain.
Plunkett says England are over the “little blip” that saw them lose to Sri Lanka and Australia last month. They came through a significant test by beating India, then New Zealand, in must-win final group games.
Since then, Eoin Morgan’s men have spent time at home with their families, an advantage of hosting the tournament, and Plunkett believes they are ready for their first World Cup semi-final since 1992.
“We’re back to where we want to be,” Plunkett told the BBC. “We know when we play our good cricket we can beat anyone in the world.
“We’ve had a little blip, but I think that came at the right time. We gave ourselves a kick up the backside and now we’re in a good spot. We won those two [final group] games convincingly. Eoin wants us to express ourselves and we can be even better than we have been in the last two games.”
Plunkett agreed with Ben Stokes’s assessment that this was the biggest match of the England team’s lives.
“With what’s to come after it, a World Cup Final, it’s huge,” said the fast bowler. “Playing for your country is massive and if you can go ahead and win this game and win the final, it’s huge for English cricket.”
England were due to train this afternoon and had no injury doubts going into that session. Jason Roy, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes have all managed injuries during the tournament, but all are set to play tomorrow in an unchanged XI.
The picture is foggier for Australia. Coach Justin Langer confirmed that Peter Handscomb would make his first appearance of the tournament, having been called up as an injury replacement. Matthew Wade has replaced Usman Khawaja (hamstring) in the squad and could also play, with Australia reportedly thinking of dropping Glenn Maxwell. Marcus Stoinis has also been struggling with side injuries, but bowled at training yesterday. Mitchell Marsh would come in if Stoinis misses out.
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This morning, however, the ICC were still awaiting any of the paperwork required to officially bring Wade or Marsh into the squad.
Langer, like spinner Nathan Lyon, was happy heaping pressure on England by positioning them as tournament favourites. “They’ve got great continuity and obviously have unbelievable confidence because they have played together for four years,” said Langer.
“And they’ve obviously got a good game plan and a lot of very talented cricketers. All those factors combined is why they’re the best team in the world at the moment.”
If England reach Sunday’s final, tournament broadcaster Sky Sports have agreed to take the game from behind their paywall, with an announcement expected on the arrangement on Friday if required.
