England and Afghanistan will lock horns in a crucial game of the ICC Champions Trophy at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Both teams lost their first games to Australia and South Africa respectively and now face a must-win situation. A defeat today will knock them out of the tournament.

Afghanistan defeated England when they played in the ODI World Cup but the conditions will be different in Pakistan, with not a lot of help for their spinners. That's a big advantage to England as they have a better batting lineup, and on a flat surface, they can bat Afghanistan out of the game. Afghanistan, however, would be optimistic about a win if the surface offers turn as it will wide open the game.

The surface so far has been high-scoring and there has not been much help for the pacers or the spinners. There is no reason to believe that the pitch will change out of the blue.

The teams haven't played a lot of ODI cricket. They have met in three ODIs, with England winning two games and Afghanistan winning one.

Afghanistan Predicted XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), R Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Sediqullah Atal, Ibrahim Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad

England Playing XI: Jos Buttler (C), JL Smith (wk), PD Salt, BM Duckett, HC Brook, JE Root, LS Livingstone, Jofra Archer, AU Rashid, Mark Wood, R Ahmed

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