World Cup Warm-Up Game: Chance for Indian Bowlers To Test Themselves vs England

The Indian team management will try to keep cards close and assess defending champions England's batting depth when the home team takes field for its first World Cup warm-up match game in Guwahati on Saturday. The warm-up games don't have an official status. Both teams can use as many players as they want and check out how some of the players respond in specific match situations. However no team would like to go full throttle and expose all their players or strategies during these games.

But with England's philosophy across formats undergoing a sea-change over the last few years and a batting line-up comprising Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali sending shivers down the spine of any opposition, the home team bowlers will get a chance to test themselves.

It will be a good opportunity for Kuldeep Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to test themselves and it is expected that all bowlers will be taking turns to bowl a few overs.

Similarly, one might find that a top player like skipper Buttler or the talismanic Stokes cooling his heels in order to not give a chance to the Indian bowlers to have a go at them.

The best part about England's team is its batting depth. Sam Curran at No. 8 and Chris Woakes, who hammered India to hit a Test hundred at the Lord's coming in at No. 9, surely speaks volumes about the team's balance.

Kishan vs Iyer debate

In an ideal world, there shouldn't be any debate if Shreyas Iyer, a fine player of spin bowling in the middle-overs of an ODI innings, should walk into the playing XI, especially with his enviable record in the format.

But since Iyer's injury break and Ishan Kishan coming into his element, the calculations are a