The clash of the spin wizards is happening when the tactical spinners from the Indian team would be ready to fox the Afghan batters and the spin wizards of Afghanistan would be waiting to spin the web around the Indian batters. Who would come out victorious in the battle of the wizards?
India: Team India is heading into this game with a great victory which was set up by their spinners. Australians after losing Marsh early were getting along, it was then Kuldeep who gave an important breakthrough dismissing Warner for 41 which opened the doors for Jadeja to attack the right-hand batsmen as he went on to dismiss Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith. Australia capitalized by picking early wickets but the partnership between Virat and Rahul took the game away from Aussies as India romped home with 8 overs to spare.
India have played only 1 ODI game against Afghanistan in the last 5 years where they beat them with Shami grabbing a hat-trick. India will now face their second game of this world cup where they will take on Afghanistan in Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium. Even though the Indian team is strong on paper, they will not take this Afghanistan team lightly, knowing the fact that Afghanistan probably possesses one of the best spinning trios in this tournament. They will look to continue to the winning momentum.
Afghanistan: They are heading into this game with a very dismal performance as they were trounced by Bangladesh in their opening clash of this world cup. From 111 for 2, they collapsed to 156. Except for their opening pair followed by Rahmat Shah, no other batsman has contributed much all this while. It has always been either Gurbaz or Ibrahim Zadran who has been among the runs for the team, at least by their standards. However, they have a huge concern of their middle-order. Skipper Shahidi hasn’t been among the runs as he could score only 322 runs in the last 15 innings at an average of 24 which says it all, at the other end Najibullah Zadran hasn’t been up to the mark either. He has scored only 209 runs in the last 12 innings with 20.90 average. With these two experienced players not scoring runs, their middle-order woes were always going to be there. Afghanistan’s’ bowling however looks strong with their spinning trio; it will be interesting to see whether they can beat the Indian spinning trio when they take on the field. If they are to give themselves any chance of competing against this strong Indian team, they will have to be spot on in all the 3 departments, especially in batting.
Probable Playing 11 (India): Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Mohammad Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah.
Probable Playing 11 (Afghanistan): Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Key players to watch out for:
Virat Kohli: Former Indian captain showed the world yet again the reason behind world touting him as King. Has there been any better savior than the Kohli? At least amongst the active players? Well, you know the answer, he has proved it time and time again. The chase-master has amassed 7525 runs in 148 innings at an average of 64.32 and a decent strike rate of 93.50 while chasing the targets. He remained not out 31 times in which India went on to win 30 games with one being on the losing side. When it comes to facing Afghanistan, He has played only one ODI against them (2019 world cup) where he scored 67.
Rashid Khan: The Afghani magician has picked 172 wickets in 95 ODI’s. Rashid hasn’t been able to perform to the expectations as he could only pick 9 wickets in his last outings, however one can’t write him off. He knows the Indian conditions well, having played more than 100 games in IPL, he will look to make the most of it. Not only can be bowl the googlies, take wickets, but also can contribute with the bat down the order. It will be interesting to see his match-up against Virat Kohli in particular.
Updates:
- Shubman Gill hasn’t yet recovered, he has been hospitalized in Chennai therefore, he will miss out on this match as well.
Interesting stats and facts:
- Afghanistan has lost 13 matches on the bounce in the World Cups, a streak only behind Zimbabwe’s 18 match losing streak.
- Indian vice-captain will be celebrating his 30th Birthday on the field.
- Rohit Sharma needs 22 Runs to complete 1000 World Cup Runs.
- Rohit Sharma needs 3 sixes to go past Chris Gayle to become the highest six hitter in international Cricket.
- Mohmmad Nabi is just 1 wicket away from completing 250 International wickets.
- Ibrahim Zadran is just 67 runs away from completing 1000 ODI runs.
Weather and Pitch report: It will be humid as the temperature will be 34 degrees Celsius. Team winning the toss will prefer to bat first, the pitch will be expected to be dry, and it should remain the same throughout. Expect another high scoring game, we back India to grab 2 points comfortably.
Date & Time: 11 October 2023, 2.00 PM (IST)
Venue: Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi.
Live Streaming: Star Sports network and Disney Hotstar
Dream 11 Team:
