Eoin Morgan happy for England fans to boo Australia duo Steve Smith and David Warner

India captain Virat Kohli urged his side’s fans not to jeer the pair when they played the Aussies at The Oval earlier in the group stages.

But Morgan maintained fans were perfectly entitled to voice their disapproval if they want – and if it gives England a helping hand then so much the better.

Asked whether he would replicate Kohli’s actions, Morgan said: “No. Not at all. I would never use the position I’m in to influence fans or try to change the game in some way.

“They have committed something and they have served their penalty (but) it doesn’t necessarily mean they are welcomed back with open arms into the cricket community.

“Regaining trust takes a lot of time. Who knows how long it will take. I don’t think I could do anything, or should do anything to try influence the fans to change their mind.”

Aussie fans might believe it is a measure of the importance of this game that Morgan might be willing to enlist the help of Lord’s to unsettle Australia’s two best batsmen.

Plenty of water has passed under the bridge since they were caught using sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball in a Test match in South Africa in March last year.

Victory would give England’s push for a semi-final berth a timely boost following the disappointment of last week’s shock defeat to Sri Lanka.

Defeat would leave them potentially needing to beat both India on Sunday and New Zealand in their final group game to book a last-four spot.

Australia captain Aaron Finch certainly believes boos from a partisan crowd will have no effect on the performance of his two star men.

“As a player you don’t tend to hear what people say. You hear the noise at times but not the specifics and I’m sure it will be the last thing on Steve or Davey’s mind when they walk out to bat,” Finch said.

“If a handful of people or the whole stadium is booing it won’t make any difference to how hard they’re watching the ball or anything like that. It’s just a bit of white noise to be fair.”

England continue to be without opener Jason Roy with the game against India on Sunday now the revised target for his comeback from a hamstring tear.

Roy batted in the nets on Monday but, following a scan, is clearly some way off being able to sprint.

Morgan sounded cagey about his possible return insisting it was not sensible to target a particular game.

Morgan said: “We’ll monitor his progress during the week and assess him. Let’s see how it goes.”

The England captain, who suggested he may go with just one spinner on a green-looking Lord’s wicket, said he has every confidence James Vince can fill the gap as opener.

“I’m confident we have the batting covered. James Vince is an extremely talented, gifted player. We have every faith in him to go on and get a score at some stage, to continue playing in his own way,” Morgan added.

Teams:

England: Bairstow, Vince, Root, Morgan (capt), Stokes, Buttler (wkt), Woakes, Plunkett, Rashid, Archer, Wood.

Australia: Finch (capt), Warner, Khawaja, Smith, Maxwell, Stoinis, Carey (wkt), Behrendorff, Cummins, Starc, Lyon.

Umpires: S Ravi & C Gaffaney

TV umpire: K Dharmasena

source: express.co.uk