India and Afghanistan will compete in their second game of the ongoing T20I series this weekend.
An exceptional display of batting from the young guns helped India register a six-wicket triumph over Afghanistan in the opening T20I. The Men in Blue will look to replicate the dominance in the next game in a bid to register an unassailable lead in the three-match series.
The hosts are off to a good start, picking up a convincing win in their opener. It was also announced that the former India skipper would miss the first game in Punjab but is now set to make a return for the second match of the series. Despite missing one of their star batters, India didn’t skip a beat, winning over Afghanistan by six wickets. Shivam Dube stole the show as the India batter produced a 40-ball sixty while hitting five boundaries and two sixes. Having secured an early lead, the Men in Blue will now be looking to bag the series in their upcoming clash.
Before competing in India, Afghanistan had already beaten the United Arab Emirates 2-1 on away soil. They failed to replicate a similar performance against India, losing their opener in Punjab. In that match, Mohammad Nabi played a strong knock in the first half to help Afghanistan reach 158 runs. However, their bowlers had an underwhelming display as they failed to curb the hosts from chasing their total. Afghanistan will now be fighting to survive in the series next.
India will play their second T20I against Afghanistan at the Holkar Cricket Stadium today. The coin went up for the toss with India winning the toss and electing to bowl first.
Captain’s Comments:
Rohit Sharma (India): We are gonna bowl first. No particular reason. Just nature of the ground especially the small boundaries. The things we were talking in our meeting, we were able to come out and execute that in the first game. We asked specific roles from the guys and they performed accordingly. Not much, they don’t have any baggage and it is all about backing them, allow them to be free on the ground. We will do things keeping the WC in mind but we know results are also important. Kohli and Jaiswal back for Gill and Tilak.
Ibrahim Zadran (Afghanistan): We will try to bat well today and put runs on the board. Again lost the toss and I would have wanted to bowl first. We spoke about the first game and worked in the net session yesterday. We did not have a good start with the bat in the last game, we spoke and hopefully we can give a good start today. Rahmat is not playing. Noor Ahmad is playing.
Playing XIs:
India
Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma(w), Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar
Afghanistan
Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
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