England will begin the defence of their World Twenty20 title by batting first after they were put in by Afghanistan. England have not always found life easy against the smaller nations. In 2009 they famously lost to Netherlands at Lord's and without rain against Ireland in 2010 at Providence may have gone the same way.
Their team was as expected with three quick bowlers supplemented by Graeme Swann and Samit Patel which means no room for Danny Briggs. Stuart Broad said he, too, would have bowled first but was not concerned about how the surface would play.
England's openers will have an early look at Shapoor Zadran, the left-arm quick, who bowled rapidly against India and there is the potential for the Afghanistan attack to cause a few problems.
Mohammad Shahzad, the wicketkeeper who left the field injured against India, was passed fit to retain his place. When they come to chase Afghanistan can expect to received plenty of short stuff, but one thing is for sure they will not take a backward step.
Afghanistan 1 Mohammad Shahzad (wk), 2 Nawroz Mangal (capt), 3 Karim Sadiq, 4 Asghar Stanikzai, 5 Mohammad Nabi, 6 Samiullah Shenwari, 7 Shafiqullah, 8 Gulbodin Naib, 9 Izatullah Dawlatzai, 10 Dawlat Zadran, 11 Shapoor Zadran
England 1 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 2 Alex Hales, 3 Luke Wright, 4 Eoin Morgan, 5 Jonny Bairstow, 6 Jos Buttler, 7 Samit Patel, 8 Stuart Broad (capt), 9 Graeme Swann, 10 Steven Finn, 11 Jade Dernbach