2023 World Cup: Predicting 3 players who could pick up the most wickets in today’s India vs England match ft. Kuldeep Yadav

Before the 2023 World Cup started, who would have thought that the match between India and England would be a contest between a joint table topper and the wooden spooner? Both teams were among the favorites and now one is as much guaranteed a semi-finals spot as the other is not.

Their fortunes have been a joint result of the effectiveness of their batters and bowlers. But it's the latter that has stood out more. With Jasprit Bumrah having unlocked a new level, and the Indian spinners chipping in with consistent wickets, they didn't even miss Hardik Pandya against New Zealand in Dharamshala.

On the other hand, England's weak spin attack has relied for wickets on part-timer Joe Root and their pace attack has looked the most under-prepared for the tournament. Their best pacer, Reece Topley, is now ruled out injured as well.

Keeping that in mind we have tried to pick three bowlers who could pick the most wickets today:

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#3 Adil Rashid

Although runs have been scored here this World Cup, the pitch in Lucknow is expected to offer a bit of grip and turn to spinners. This would make leg-spinner Adil Rashid England's best choice to pick up wickets.

After a poor start, took three wickets against Afghanistan and two against South Africa on flatter batting tracks. In the middle overs, he has bowled more accurately than usual and has been beating batters in the air.

Rashid has an underwhelming record against India in bilateral ODIs but the current crop of Indian batters have shown a tendency to struggle against leg-spinners in the middle overs.

If the pacers keep the openers quiet or take a couple of wickets early, Rashid will become 10x the bowler he is and would be difficult to play.

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#2 Jasprit Bumrah

India's premier seamer has the best bowling average so far in the tournament - 16.27. He bowls in all phases and would be happy to take on England's struggling top-order and a slightly overrated (as it has been proven) lower order.

He has played six matches against England and hasn't gone wicketless even once. Even his best bowling figures of 6/19 came against England at the Kennington Oval in 2019. Overall he has 14 wickets against them at 24.29.

Mohammed Shami could have been a pretty good choice too but it's not certain if he'd play on a spin-friendly surface ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin or not, despite his stunning recent form.

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#1 Kuldeep Yadav

Considering the pitch and the form he's in, you can't keep Kuldeep Yadav out of the list of potential top wicket-takers. Like Bumrah, the left-arm spinner also picked up his best-ever ODI spell against England - 6/25 at Trent Bridge in 2018.

England haven't played him since 2021 when, in an ODI in Pune, they hit 84 runs against him without losing a wicket. Most of the batters, thus, might not be able to effectively tackle his subtle variations bowled with added pace.

Just seeing the defending champions' match against Afghanistan would show you that apart from Root, not many of them read spinners off the hands, which would give the Indians an even bigger advantage.