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India's 'Afghan-spin' test in a survival match today

  • Sports
  • 04 November, 2021 09:23:39

Photo: Collected

Sports Desk: Two losses in two matches. India, the host of the current T20 World Cup, is on the brink of collapse. Another loss is enough to get them out of the Super Twelve. On the other hand, even if we win the three matches at hand, it will not happen again. In order to reach the semi-finals, Virat Kohli's team will have to look towards New Zealand-Afghanistan as well.

But first I want to get my work done. To that end, India is playing against Afghanistan today. Kohli and Rohit will play against Rashid and Nabi in a survival match at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi at 8 pm.

While India are unbeaten, Afghanistan have won two of their first three matches. The rate is only with Pakistan. He also slipped from the palm of his hand and what! The Afghans can present a tough challenge to India today. In particular, the big question now is whether India's rhythmless batting line-up can stand in front of the team's spin division.

Rashid Khan-Mujib ur Rahman have become a terror for the opposition. Even the Pakistani batsmen have struggled to score in front of these two spinners. Kohli will have to give a big test today. However, if they fail this test, it will not be possible to miraculously prevent India from being knocked out of the World Cup!

The Indian team management is also thinking about batting in Afghanistan. The Indian bowlers have managed to pick up only two wickets in two matches in the current World Cup. The reason for their concern is Jazai-Shahzad-Gurbajra. Because in their own day, any one of these three batsmen is enough to blow up the opponent's bowling lineup.

However, keeping batting and bowling away, India will have to get their side this time as well. India had to bat first in both the matches in Dubai. The Indian bowlers have suffered from dew problems since bowling later. In this World Cup, the team that batted later has won in 6 out of 6 matches played in Abu Dhabi. With these thoughts in mind, Kohli will want to improve his bowling before winning the toss against the Afghans today.

The batsmen did not get a run, the bowlers failed to give a break-through, but India are scheduled to take the field today with the XI against New Zealand. However, India is no longer experimenting with Rohit Sharma. The innings will be inaugurated with him. Ishan Kishan is probably going to be his opening partner. In that case KL Rahul will go down to four.

Meanwhile, Asghar Afghan, who has been called up to retire at the end of the third match of the World Cup, could be replaced by either Hasmatullah Shahidi or Usman Ghani. The Afghan team management could not guarantee Mujib's return to the XI as he could not play the last match against Namibia due to injury.

India-Afghanistan have met only twice before in this format. Every time India left the field with a smile of victory. But this time the context is completely different. India's confidence has plummeted after losing the last game in four T20s. The Afghans will want to take advantage of India's lack of confidence to win first.

Pitch report: Abu Dhabi's wicket is not pure batting friendly. In particular, the team batting first suffers to make runs. It is relatively easy to bat for a team that chases the target. The success rate of the team that batted later (6 percent) also says that.

India's potential XI: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Rishav Panth, Hardik Pandya, Rabindra Jadeja, Shardul Tagore, Mohammad Shami, Jaspreet Bumrah, Varun Chakraborty.

Probable XI of Afghanistan: Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Shahzad, Rahmanullah Gujbaz, Usman Gani, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Karim Janat / Mujib Ur Rahman, Hamid Hasan, Naveen ul Haq.

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