England's batting talisman Joe Root expects his teams' emotions to run high on Sunday when they face an unbeaten Indian side in the World Cup 2019.
England suffered a massive defeat versus Australia in their last match and the hosts' hopes of reaching the World Cup semi-finals hang in the balance.
England hangs by a thread in the top-four and are just 1-point ahead of Pakistan and Bangladesh, and 2 points ahead of Sri Lanka who have a game in hand. Only the top four team at the end of the league stage qualify for the World Cup semi-finals.
Winning their last two group games would secure a semi-final spot but seeing off both India and New Zealand would require a sharp improvement from a side who have lost their way since starting the campaign as clear favourites.
When they walk out at Edgbaston this weekend, swathes of fans from Birmingham's big British Asian community will be backing India, heaping the pressure on the home side.
"I personally think we have to be very calm about how we approach the next couple of games because the games themselves might get quite emotional, especially with the atmosphere at Edgbaston," said Test captain Root.
"We believe we're still more than capable of qualifying for the semi-finals and when that happens, it doesn't really matter how you got there because that's when the tournament really starts to kick in," he added.
"We'll see these two games as quarter-finals if you like, which in a way when it comes round to the knockout stage should serve you well. You're going to have to win big games at some stage in the tournament if you're going to go on and win it, so it may be that ours have come just a little bit sooner than we anticipated."
England hope that opener Jason Roy, who has been badly missed in his three-game absence, will return from a hamstring injury in time to play at Edgbaston while they also have fitness concerns over bowlers Jofra Archer and Adil Rashid.&nbsp;
With inputs from AFP
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England's Joe Root insists hosts must keep cool during last two group games against India and New Zealand if they are to qualify for semi-finals

World Cup 2019: England have to be calm, says Joe Root

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World Cup 2019: England have to be calm, says Joe Root

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