India take on Afghanistan with semi-final hopes hanging by a thread

MATCH CENTRE | STANDINGS

For pre-tournament favourites India, nothing has gone to plan so far in the T20 World Cup. They lost two tosses, their batting failed twice, their bowlers have taken only two wickets so far, and they find themselves second-last on the Group 2 table with no points from two games.

They can mathematically still finish in the top two of the group and make it to the semi-final. But the first step of that involves winning well against Afghanistan.

The Afghans aren't going to make things easy, of course. They are an in-form team, with an excellent net run rate after big wins against Scotland and Namibia, and gave Pakistan some nervous moments as well. Their spin attack is world class, and will be the main threat to an Indian batting line-up that has struggled to get going against spinners.

Afghanistan have been able to so far go against one of the trends in the World Cup: whereas most teams winning the toss have chosen to chase, and most teams chasing have won, Afghanistan have chosen to bat, and backed their bowlers to defend the totals. Happily for them, their pacers have supported the spin trio well.

They have also adopted an aggressive batting strategy – in contrast to India's more conservative approach – and it has worked well for them so far. With the pressure on India, they may take the chance to play with further freedom.

Stars on both the Indian and Afghan sides will be wary of how dangerous the other players can be. While the teams have played T20Is only twice so far, the last of which was back in 2012, they have been familiar friends and foes at the IPL.

Fixture details

• The match: India v Afghanistan, Match 33
• Time: 06:00pm Wednesday 3 November
• Venue: Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Virat Kohli, the Indiacaptain, said his team was "not brave" in either their batting or bowling. Heeding their captain's call might be the first change India need to make. But the best playing XI and even the line-up is also not immediately clear for the team. India could return to the opening pair of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, with Ishan Kishan slotting into the middle order. The surface at Abu Dhabi might mean that spinner Ravichandran Ashwin continues to be kept out of the attack, with India attacking the opposition with pace.

Possible XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy

Afghanistanwill be forced to make a change with their former captain Asghar Afghan choosing to retire after their last match. They will be hoping that Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who missed the last match, is fit again. Hashmatullah Shahidi could come in as a batting option.

Possible XI: Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi (capt), Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq, Hamid Hassan. Mujeeb Ur Rahman

**KL Rahul:**The India opener doesn't have a good record against Rashid Khan and tends to be circumspect against spin. His challenge will be to find a balance between caution and aggression in taking on the spin attack, and be more effective in shifting the gears. He could be in line to be pushed down the order to No.4, if India want a left-right combination at the top. That means he will have to step up his game in the crucial middle overs, where India have struggled.

**Hamid Hassan:**The Afghanistan pacer hadn't played a T20I in five years when he came into the XI against Namibia to take 3/9. In this time, he's battled injury, done commentary and mentored the youngsters in the side. But on his return, his yorkers were on point. Given that the Abu Dhabi track has aided pacers, he could have an important role to play at any stage of the innings.

Captaincy Pick - Rashid Khan

Afghanistan's leg-spinner has to be the top captaincy pick of the match given his incredible record in the format having scalped 102 wickets in 54 T20Is at a strike rate of 11.9. Adding to it, every batter in the present India squad has struggled to score runs against him. Except for Ishan Kishan, none of the Indian players has a batting strike rate of above 120 in T20s against Rashid, which makes him a threat in this encounter.

Must-have - Jasprit Bumrah

Bumrah is the only India bowler who looked in some sort of rhythm in the ongoing T20 World Cup. He is also in great recent form leading into the tournament having picked 15 wickets in 7 matches played for Mumbai Indians in the UAE leg of IPL 2021.

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If India win, they keep their hopes of qualifying for the semi-final alive. Just about. If they lose, they will remain at the bottom of the table with Scotland with no points.

If Afghanistan win, they can give their chances of finishing in the top two another boost.

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Vikram Rathour, India batting coach:"We need to win first before we get into the run rate part of the equation ... This surface, it's difficult to rotate the strike because the pace and bounces are slightly variable. It's not only our team. Every team who has batted first on these surfaces have struggled to do that. [But] if you want to be a champion team, if you want to be a team which wins the World Cup, you should be able to be in these situations. You should be able to play in these conditions as well."

Hamid Hassan, Afghanistan pacer: "Afghanistan are a very good side. Our batting, bowling, fielding is much improved. We have some of the best spinners in the world, and now it's a proper complete squad. If you see top of the order, sometimes they click, sometimes they're stuck. But the good sign is that the middle order is getting runs. Most of the batsmen, they can hit. So we have a good opportunity against India, if we score good runs on the board, we can defeat them by bowling and fielding."