Skipper Rohit Sharma hit a fifty after India lost three early wickets including Virat Kohli for a nine-ball duck against defending champions England in their World Cup clash on Sunday.

Left-arm quick David Willey claimed the prized scalp of Kohli who played a loose shot to be caught at mid-off by Ben Stokes and walked off to stunned silence at Lucknow's Ekana Stadium.

The unbeaten hosts lost two more wickets to slip to 40-3 before Rohit reached his second fifty of the tournament -- he also hit a century against Afghanistan -- and attempted to steady the innings with KL Rahul.

Rohit survived a reprieve on 33 when he was given out lbw off Mark Wood but the opener reviewed the decision in his favour with tracking showing the ball would have missed leg stump.

He reached his fifty in 66 balls and took India to 89-3 in 24 overs.

England jolt India after opting to bowl first

India's star batsman Virat Kohli fell for a nine-ball duck as England's fast bowlers struck early blows in their must-win World Cup clash on Sunday.

Left-arm quick David Willey claimed the prized scalp after Kohli played a loose shot to be caught at mid-off by Ben Stokes and walked off to stunned silence at Lucknow's Ekana Stadium.

Kohli remains one century away from equalling all-time great Sachin Tendulkar's record of 49 ODI hundreds.

Former captain Kohli has been in good form at this 50-over showpiece, hitting a match-winning 95 against New Zealand last week.

He started by scoring 85 in India's opening match against Australia and followed it up with a 55 not out (Afghanistan), 16 (Pakistan), 103 not out (Bangladesh).

Sunday's duck was his 16th in ODIs in his 275th innings.

Kohli has scored 13,437 runs at an average of over 58 since his debut in 2008.

Chris Woakes bowled opener Shubman Gill for nine in the fourth over after England, who sit bottom of the 10-team table, elected to bowl in their bid for victory and keep their slim hopes alive of making the semi-finals.

Woakes got one more to send Shreyas Iyer (four) back to the pavilion for four as India slipped to 40-3 in 12 overs.

England bowl against India in Lucknow

England have won the toss and decided to bowl first against India in their sixth World Cup game in Lucknow today. 

The world champions come into the game on the bottom of the points table, having won only one of their first five matches. A win in the remaining matches may not be enough for them to qualify. India, on the other hand, are the only unbeaten team in the tournament. 

Neither team made any changes from their previous match.

"We are going to bowl first today. Not anything in particular, it's a tough decision. It's a great occasion and hopefully, today we bring our best. Today, we want to put up a good show. Playing in front of a full crowd and against India, it's a great occasion. We are going with the same team," England captain Jos Buttler said at the toss.

"We wanted to bat first, we have had a good time batting second. It's a good surface, it has played well for the 100 overs. It's quite important to think like that and is also important to play well. We have played some good cricket," India captain Rohit Sharma said.

TEAMS

India: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler(w/c), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood