Former India player Mohammad Kaif said that every opponent will look to play a spin-heavy attack against England after their batting collapse in the World Cup 2023 clash against Afghanistan. However, Afghanistan set England a 285-run target in Delhi on Sunday, October 15 and England lost eight wickets to spin and were bowled out for 215 to lose the game by 69 runs as well.

During a discussion on Star Sports, Kaif said: “Bowling first and then be sure what your best XI is, whether Moeen Ali will play or not. He played the first match and then you dropped him. So you have to decide your best XI and after that batting. You will have to chase targets like 284. You will want to survive against spin but that won’t happen. You will have to play spin well. You will get Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja against India, and R Ashwin might play. Every team will play three spinners against England after seeing this performance.”

READ MORE: Virat Kohli shares the importance of maintaining diet

Notably, India will take on England in Lucknow on October 29. Although India have played Shardul Thakur in their last two games, they might look to play Ravichandran Ashwin before the seam-bowling all-rounder in that match as well. However, Mohammad Kaif said England’s harmless bowling as a bigger concern.

“They lost the first match against New Zealand in Ahmedabad by nine wickets. It was a big defeat. They could pick up only one wicket there. Then Reece Topley came against Bangladesh and he had four wickets to his name. If you remove Topley’s four wickets, they haven’t taken wickets at all. They are making changes but the bowling looked extremely flat. Chris Woakes and Mark Wood are getting hit. If you leave aside Topley, there is no other positive. How will you move forward? You cannot win the World Cup based on batting alone,” Mohammad Kaif concluded.