Harry Brook to Jofra Archer:5 English players who could be threats for India; Curran likely to be X-factor

Today India will play the T20 World Cup semifinal against England. The winning team will play the final against New Zealand on March 8. India has already lost one match against South Africa in the tournament. America and West Indies troubled the team. Now England also has 5 such players who can increase Team India’s troubles. 5 Engliush players who might challenge Team India 1. Harry Brook Scored a century against Pakistan 27-year-old Harry Brook is captaining England for the first time in an ICC tournament. The team lost to West Indies in the group stage, but in Super-8, Brook led the team to win all three matches and reach the semi-finals. He scored a century while chasing runs against Pakistan and won a crucial match for the team. With one century and one fifty in the tournament, Brook has scored 228 runs and is also the team’s top scorer. Brook is one of world cricket’s top emerging players. In the last World Cup, he helped his team reach the semi-finals by scoring a fifty on a very difficult pitch against South Africa. After making his debut in 2022, he has scored over 1000 international runs across all three formats. He is also only the second England player to score centuries in all three formats. 2. Jos Buttler Has defeated India in semifinal England’s former captain Jos Buttler flopped throughout the tournament and could not score more than 30 runs even once. However, against India, Buttler has scored the most T20 runs in the current team. He has scored 644 runs including 5 fifties. It was Buttler who secured England’s victory against India in the 2022 T20 World Cup semifinal by scoring 80 runs off 49 balls. Butler has not even reached 10 runs in the last 5 innings of this tournament. However, the 2 times when he scored innings of 21 and 26 runs, he was batting at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. The pitch here is batting friendly and if Butler wants to return to form, he cannot get a better pitch than Wankhede Stadium. 3. Sam Curran Has defended 10 runs in the 20th over When England became champions in 2022, all-rounder Sam Curran was named Player of the Tournament. From 2023 to 2024, his form declined and he failed in both batting and bowling departments. In 2025, he made a comeback, leading Desert Vipers to their first championship while captaining in UAE’s ILT20 league. Curran performs according to team needs, stabilizing the batting when early wickets fall. In bowling, he delivers crucial overs without conceding many runs. Against Nepal, he defended 10 runs in the final over to secure a 4-run victory for the team. Curran was also named Player of the Series in his debut Test series against India. 4. Will Jacks Won 4 Player of the Match Awards England’s team is among the strongest teams in T20, largely due to their all-rounders. Will Jacks also plays this role. He bats in the top order for his franchise and domestic cricket teams, but is batting at number 7 for England. He has played many useful innings at this position. Jacks has also turned many matches with his off-spin in this tournament. He remains economical with both the new ball in powerplay and the old ball in middle overs. Team India also appeared to struggle against off-spinners in the tournament. In such a situation, Jacks could prove to be a major weapon against Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma. He was also named Player of the Match 4 times in the team’s 7 matches. 5. Jofra Archer England’s premium fast bowler In the tournament, leg spinner Adil Rashid and left-arm spinner Liam Dawson took the most wickets for England. Both have 11 wickets each. However, the Wankhede Stadium pitch tends to be more helpful for pacers. In such conditions, team’s top pacer Jofra Archer can make more impact with the new ball. He has already taken 10 wickets in the tournament. Archer has played 11 T-20s against India, taking 14 wickets. He maintains an economy rate below 9 and doesn’t give away many runs even when not taking wickets. Archer has also taken 14 wickets against India in ODIs and Tests. Sanju Samson, who scored a century against West Indies, could be troubled by Archer’s pace.