England vs Australia 2nd Semi Final Prediction

AUS Team News

Australia have been struck hard by a couple of injury blows. Top-order batsman Usman Khawaja has been ruled out of the remainder of the World Cup due to the hamstring injury he had picked up while batting in the previous match against South Africa. The Aussies are likely to draft Peter Handscomb into the playing eleven. Marcus Stoinis suffered a side strain in that game and is doubtful for the Thursday's semi-final. Mitchell Marsh has been named as cover and the all-rounder could be slotted into the line-up straight away in case Stoinis fails to regain complete fitness in time.

AUS Key Players

David Warner: The left-handed opening batsman has been in sensational form since the IPL. He is currently the second-leading run-getter in the tournament with 638 runs which includes three hundreds and as many fifties. His scores in the last four matches read 166, 53, 16 and 122.

Alex Carey: With 329 runs in eight innings, the wicketkeeper is averaging 65.80 and has an impressive strike-rate of 113.44. He has three fifties to his name, two of which were hit in the last two games - 71 against Australia and 85 against South Africa.

Mitchell Starc: The fast bowler is topping the wickets charts of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 with 26 wickets at an economy of 5.18. He has notched a couple of four-wicket hauls and as many fifers. After returning 4-43 against England, Starc bagged 5-26 against New Zealand before taking 2-59 in the last match against South Africa.

AUS Recent Form

Australia have finished second on the CWC 2019 leaderboard with seven wins and two losses from their nine league matches. They went into their last game against South Africa at Manchester on the back of five consecutive wins but their winning run came to an end with a 10-run defeat. Their only other defeat in this World Cup came against India last month by 36 runs at the Kennington Oval in London. The Aussies did not have a great game with the ball last time as they allowed the Proteas to rack up a big score of 325 which was always going to be a tough ask on a slowing surface.

Australia’s Road to Semi-Finals

Australia faced Afghanistan - the weakest of all the teams in this World Cup - in their campaign opener and as was expected, it proved to be a walk in the park for them as they emerged victors by seven wickets. Next, they found themselves up against a tougher opponent in West Indies at Nottingham where they secured a hard-fought win by 15 runs. The Aussies then faced their first defeat of the tournament, losing to India by 36 runs at London.

But the loss did not deter Australia and they bounced back strongly to win their next five matches on the trot - beating Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, England and New Zealand en route to their semi-final qualification. By that time, they had become the first team in the tournament to have ensured a spot in the knockout round. The Aussies, however, could not extend their winning run further as they ran into a resurgent South Africa in their last league-stage game. Their hopes of finishing at the top of the table were dashed as they lost by 10 runs and ended up second on the leaderboard with 14 points.