Afghanistan’s bowlers will ask questions, and India’s batters should reply them

Match particulars

Afghanistan vs India
Bridgetown, 10.30am native, 8.00pm IST, 2.30pm GMT

Large image – India vs Rashid Khan

This January, these two groups produced one of many biggest T20Is ever – one which wanted two Tremendous Overs to supply a end result – and that was after they had been taking part in less-than-full-strength groups after the sequence had been determined. The stakes are so much increased now. So maybe Afghanistan and India’s assembly within the Tremendous Eight of the T20 World Cup 2024 can be rather less spectacle and slightly extra surgical.

Afghanistan possess a bowling assault able to asking questions each over, which works out properly as a result of they should discover a well beyond the expertise of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli early to stage the taking part in subject. With these two out of the image, something can occur. That’ll be Fazalhaq Farooqi’s job. His left-arm angle coupled with the flexibility to swing the brand new ball are threats to batters of even the very best high quality.

If that occurs – and it is a large if – India will come underneath scoreboard stress, which is greatest pals with Rashid Khan. The Afghanistan captain has walked into loads of conditions the place the opposition has simply began to wobble, and he finishes them off.

It takes a genius to beat a genius, and India are fortunate to have Suryakumar Yadav, who has dominated Rashid in T20s, scoring 86 runs in 58 balls at a strike charge of 148 with out being dismissed. Shivam Dube goes at the next strike charge (155) over a smaller pattern dimension (18 balls), however that brings into image the opposite benefit that India have: left-hand batters. Rashid has not performed as properly in opposition to them in T20s these days. He stored them all the way down to a strike charge of 109 in 2022 and 2023. This yr, it is up at 141.

Afghanistan’s bowling is their greatest power, however India have them coated. So which means certainly one of Afghanistan’s batters should have a subject day.

Type information

Afghanistan: LWWWW (Final 5 accomplished matches, most up-to-date first)
India: WWWWW

Within the highlight – Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Axar Patel

Scoring shortly in opposition to high-quality bowling requires each talent and bravado, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz has each in abundance. He scored 80 off 56 balls in a match the place solely two of his team-mates reached double-digits and the opposition – New Zealand – had been bowled out for 75. Gurbaz hits tempo at a strike charge of 150 and spin at 145 in T20 cricket, and which will very properly be a operate of how he does not thoughts taking dangers. Batters like which might be exhausting to cease when it is their day.

A lot of the main focus on this sport can be on thriller spin. However beneath all that, fortunately flying underneath the radar, giving each tangible and intangible outcomes is Axar Patel. His left-arm spin is all about containment, however he does that by attacking the stumps, whereas his batting at No. 8 offers India the boldness to hit out from ball one. Axar also needs to take pleasure in the truth that Afghanistan ought to have solely two left-hand batters of their prime eight.

Workforce information

India have no must tinker with their XI. And regardless of the loss to West Indies, Afghanistan won’t both.

Afghanistan (possible): 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Gulbadin Naib, 4 Azmatullah Omarzai, 5 Mohammad Nabi, 6 Najibullah Zadran, 7 Karim Janat, 8 Rashid Khan (capt), 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi

India (possible): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rishabh Pant (wk), 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Jasprit Bumrah, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Arshdeep Singh

Pitch and situations

Bridgetown has provided respectable batting situations, having hosted one of many three 200-plus scores seen on this match. The climate should not be an issue.

Stats and trivia

  • Afghanistan have performed India in 13 video games throughout codecs, however are but to win one
  • Gurbaz (167) and Farooqi (12) are presently the very best scorer and the very best wicket-taker, respectively, within the T20 World Cup 2024
  • India haven’t confronted Rashid so much in T20Is, however in two video games, they’ve scored 69 runs in eight overs with out dropping a single wicket to him
  • Rohit and Kohli are tied on 4042 T20I runs, with solely Babar Azam (4145) forward of them

Quotes

“I all the time thought that in probably the most tough section of T20, like between [overs] 7 to 14, 7 to 16 – I had considered that so much earlier than making my debut for India – if I do properly right here, if I bat with a superb strike charge, then I generally is a game-changer on that day. And once I stored doing it repeatedly, I felt that that is my sport plan going ahead.”
India batter Suryakumar Yadav

Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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