🏏ICC T20I WC 2024: S8 - Match 43: India vs Afghanistan @8:00 PM IST🏏

🏏ICC T20I WC 2024: S8 - Match 43: India vs Afghanistan @8:00 PM IST🏏

India will kickstart their Super 8 journey in this T20 World Cup today when they take on Afghanistan at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. The Men in Blue have locked horns against the Afghans thrice in T20 World Cup history and have emerged victorious in all the matches.  

India have got a good eight day break since their last match as their final group-stage match against Canada got washed out because of rain. 

On the other hand, Afghanistan, who have instilled fear in opposition minds with their performance, surrendered against West Indies in their previous match, and faced a morale-crushing 104 runs defeat. 

India are one of the favourites going forward in the tournament and are yet to lose a game. The bowlers are in great shape and would look to continue their form. 

However, the Super 8 leg of the World Cup has moved to the Caribbeans, where the batters would also have a say. Thus, India might look to bring in a proper spinner and rest a seamer. 

Further, the batting unit needs to step up, particularly, Virat Kohli, who has scored just 5 runs in three games. 

There were reports that the former India captain batted for long hours in the nets, which is a positive sign for the Rohit Sharma-led side.

Virat even had a small injury scare alongside Suryakumar Yadav, but both players are fit and will feature against Afghanistan. 

Afghanistan entered the tournament as the best spin side and they proved that as they progressed in the competition. Skipper Rashid Khan led from the front while Noor Ahmed too assisted him well. It would be a great contest between quality Afghan spin bowling and ready-to-go Indian batters.

The surprise element for Afghanistan in this World Cup has been Fazalhaq Farooqi, who is also the leading wicket-getter with 12 wickets in four games. 

In the batting, Rahmanullah Gurbaz started the tournament on a high but lost his touch recently. Nonetheless, he is the tournament's leading run-getter with 167 runs. 

Overall, Afghanistan have witnessed great individual performances in this edition, but need to perform as a unit to upset India. 

The game is likely to be a close contest, but India would seal the win as eventually the team that would absorb the pressure would have an upper hand. 

Tag & Logo Credit:WildestDreams

The Kensington Oval in the West Indies is known for its fast and bouncy pitch, favouring fast bowlers. Despite that, it is great for the batters and the fans can expect a high scoring game. In the previous match at this venue, Australia scored 201 runs on the board. 

IND vs AFG: Probable XIs

India: Rohit Sharma (C), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav

Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan (C), Gulbadin Naib, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Noor Ahmad

Afghanistan's bowlers will ask questions, and India's batters must answer them!!!

While Rashid Khan and Fazalhaq Farooqi could be Afghanistan's trump cards, India could counter them with Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube! 

While India did not drop even a single point at their group stage, defending even 119 against Pakistan, the Afghans did beat New Zealand comprehensively but were thrashed by the West Indies in their last match. 

Kuldeep Yadav would most likely come into the Indian playing 11 in place of Mohammed Siraj as the Barbados wicket seems to help the spinners. 

The pitch at The Oval in Bridgetown has recently favored batters, making the outcome heavily dependent on how well the Indian batters combat Afghanistan's spinners - Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed, and Mohammed Nabi. 

The prospect of facing them could be particularly enticing for players like Shivam Dube, who is being specifically prepared for this challenge. He needs to step up in a middle order, which will constantly challenge the opposition with a left-right combination, an asset previous Indian teams lacked.

India vs Afghanistan head-to-head

The two teams have met each other eight times in T20 internationals, Afghanistan came mighty close to winning for the first time against India in their last meeting but eventually lost in the second Super Over. 

Total matches played: 08

India won: 07

Afghanistan won: 00

No result: 01

Abandoned: 00

Big picture - India vs Rashid Khan

This January, these two teams produced one of the greatest T20Is ever - one that needed two Super Overs to produce a result - and that was when they were playing less-than-full-strength teams after the series had been decided. The stakes are a lot higher now. So perhaps Afghanistan and India's meeting in the Super Eight of the T20 World Cup 2024 will be a little less spectacle and a little more surgical.

Afghanistan possess a bowling attack capable of asking questions every over, which works out well because they have to find a way past the experience of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli early to level the playing field. With those two out of the picture, anything can happen. That'll be Fazalhaq Farooqi's job. His left-arm angle coupled with the ability to swing the new ball are threats to batters of even the highest quality.

If that happens - and it's a big if - India will come under scoreboard pressure, which is best friends with Rashid Khan. The Afghanistan captain has walked into plenty of situations where the opposition has just started to wobble, and he finishes them off.

It takes a genius to beat a genius, and India are lucky to have Suryakumar Yadav, who has dominated Rashid in T20s, scoring 86 runs in 58 balls at a strike rate of 148 without being dismissed. 

Shivam Dube goes at a higher strike rate (155) over a smaller sample size (18 balls), but that brings into picture the other advantage that India have: left-hand batters. 

Rashid has not done as well against them in T20s lately. He kept them down to a strike rate of 109 in 2022 and 2023. This year, it's up at 141.

Afghanistan's bowling is their best strength, but India have them covered. So that means one of Afghanistan's batters will have to have a field day.

Afghanistan: LWWWW (Last five completed matches, most recent first)

India: WWWWW

In the spotlight - Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Axar Patel

Scoring quickly against high-quality bowling requires both skill and bravery, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz has both in abundance. He scored 80 off 56 balls in a match where only two of his team-mates reached double-digits and the opposition - New Zealand - were bowled out for 75. Gurbaz hits pace at a strike rate of 150 and spin at 145 in T20 cricket, and that may very well be a function of how he doesn't mind taking risks. Batters like that are hard to stop when it's their day.

So much of the focus in this game will be on mystery spin. But underneath all that, happily flying under the radar, giving both tangible and intangible results is Axar Patel. His left-arm spin is all about containment, but he does that by attacking the stumps, while his batting at No. 8 gives India the confidence to hit out from ball one. Axar should also enjoy the fact that Afghanistan should have only two left-hand batters in their top eight.

Bridgetown has offered decent batting conditions, having hosted one of the three 200-plus scores seen in this tournament. The weather shouldn't be a problem.

Stats and trivia

• Afghanistan have played India in 13 games across formats, but are yet to win one
• Gurbaz (167) and Farooqi (12) are currently the highest scorer and the highest wicket-taker, respectively, in the T20 World Cup 2024
• India have not faced Rashid a lot in T20Is, but in two games, they have scored 69 runs in eight overs without losing a single wicket to him
• Rohit and Kohli are tied on 4042 T20I runs, with only Babar Azam (4145) ahead of them

Quotes

"I always thought that during the most difficult phase of T20, like between [overs] 7 to 14, 7 to 16 - I had thought about that a lot before making my debut for India - if I do well here, if I bat with a good strike rate, then I can be a game-changer on that day. And when I kept doing it repeatedly, I felt that this is my game plan going forward."

India batter Suryakumar Yadav

Pitch Report and Conditions 

The five World Cup fixtures held at the Kensington Oval have yielded markedly disparate batting outcomes: at one extreme, the contest between Oman and Namibia resulted in scores of 109 all-out and 109 for 6; contrastingly, Scotland's rapid accumulation of 90 for 0 from 10 overs amidst intermittent showers against England stands out. Notably, no team managed to surpass Australia's total of 164-5 against Oman, with Australia themselves shattering their own score again. This upcoming day match will be contested on a new pitch, reputed to be the finest on the square, although a somewhat erratic weather forecast may present an additional challenge for the teams.

What to expect: With the match being a day game, the dew is out of equation which largely nullifies the impact of the toss although the captain calling it right may choose to bowl first. Unlike in the US where the pitches were largely bowler-friendly, strip here should be conducive for batting. A high-scoring game can be expected with the deciding factor being how the Indian batters handle Afghanistan's spinners. For the record, India have never lost to Afghanistan in their eight meetings in T20Is, winning seven with one no result.

Probable Best Performers of the match 

Probable Best Batter: Virat Kohli

The Indian icon has not been in optimal form and will undoubtedly wish to swiftly put his group-stage performance behind him, having scored merely five runs across three innings. Given his lofty ambitions and remarkable mental fortitude to seize control of high-profile games, he could be anticipated to be India's hero in their inaugural match of the Super 8s.

Probable Best Bowler: Rashid Khan

Considering the sluggish nature of the pitch at Bridgetown, it presents an ideal opportunity for the Afghan skipper to continue his exemplary performance. He could once again be expected to lead his team with a pivotal bowling spell, delivering a captain's performance when it matters the most.