Shawdesh Desk: India’s so-called Bharat Army fans are expected to outnumber England’s Barmy Army supporters in a Sunday sellout at the around 25,000-capacity Edgbaston in what will feel like a home game for India. India, which has been dominant throughout the tournament apart from one close-call against winless Afghanistan, will join Australia in the semifinals with a win. It has 11 points from six games. Fifth-place England has eight points from seven games and faces New Zealand in its last group match. Fourth-place Pakistan beat Afghanistan with two balls to spare Saturday and now leads England by a point but has played one more game.
England was ranked No. 1 at the start of the tournament and was the early title favorite. Eoin Morgan’s team is not out of contention if it loses to India, but its fate will no longer be in its hands and its dreams of a one-day international cricket revolution potentially over. Failure to advance by what was widely seen pre-tournament as the finest-ever England ODI team — skewing rivals with a surfeit of six-smacking skills — would be a hard blow to take. And hard blows have been partly blamed for England’s predicament so far with its super-aggressive approach — and alleged no Plan B — often wasting chances of taking singles and 2s, and innings-building in a more modest way. The team lacks the strategic finesse in one-day internationals that India has thanks to inspirational captain Virat Kohli. Kohli, who has scored four straight half-centuries, had mixed feelings on England’s struggles.