Mumbai, Oct 21 (IANS): England won the toss and elected to bowl first against South Africa in their crucial preliminary round match in the ICC Men's ODI World Cup 2023 at the Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday.

England made three changes in the playing XI that lost to Afghanistan in their last match. As expected, Ben Stokes has recovered from an a right hip injury and is back while David Willey and Gus Atkinson come in for Chris Woakes and Sam Curran.

Skipper Jos Buttler said it was a good ground for chasing and they haven't batted as well as they would have liked to. He reckoned that the wicket will favour pace.

Markram, leading the side in the absence of Temba Bavuma, who pulled up ill, said it was unfortunate to lose the skipper but felt it was an opportunity for Reeza Hendricks.

Markram was happy to be batting first as it looked like a good wicket. He felt the wicket will ease up further after the Power-play and

Markram says Temba has pulled up ill, unfortunate to lose him but it's an opportunity for Hendricks. He's been knocking on the door for a while but the openers have been incredible. Happy batting first, looks a good wicket, will be a good wicket especially after the powerplay.

"The loss (against the Netherlands) motivates you a bit. We gotta reach back to the standards we'd set previously," said Markram.

Playing XIs:

South AFrica: Adien Markram (c), Quinton De Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie Van Der Dussen, Henrich Klassen, David Miller, Marcus Jansen, Gerald Coietzee, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi

England: Jonnie Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, Reece Topley.