T20 World Cup 2024, AFG vs IND 43rd Match, Super Eights, Group 1 Match Preview

Admin June 19, 2024

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T20 World Cup 2024, AFG vs IND 43rd Match, Super Eights, Group 1 Match Preview

Game details

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

Big picture – India vs Rashid Khan

This January, the two teams produced one of the biggest T20Is ever – one that required two Super Overs to produce a result – and it was when they played less-than-perfect teams after the series was decided. The stakes are very high now. So perhaps the meeting between Afghanistan and India in the Super Eight of the T20 World Cup 2024 will be a little more spectacular and a little more surgical.

Afghanistan have a bowling attack that can always ask questions, which works well because they have to find a way to get past the experience of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli early on to level the field. With these two out of the picture, anything is possible. That will be Fazalhaq Farooqi’s job. His left arm angle coupled with the ability to swing the new ball is a threat to the top batsmen.

If that happens – and it’s a big if – India will be under pressure from the scoreboard, who are best friends with Rashid Khan. The Afghanistan captain has stepped into many situations where the opposition have just started to falter, and he finishes them off.

You need to be smart to beat a genius, and India were lucky to have Suryakumar Yadav, who managed Rashid in T20s, scoring 86 runs off 58 balls at a strike rate of 148 without being dismissed. Shivam Dube has a high strike rate (155) over a small sample size (18 balls), but that brings into the picture another advantage India have: left-handed batsmen. Rashid has not done well against them in T20s recently. He kept them down to 109 in 2022 and 2023. This year, he increased to 141.

Afghanistan’s bowling is their best strength, but India have it covered. So that means one of Afghanistan’s batsmen will have to have a field day.

Form guide

Afghanistan: LWWWW (Last five games completed, latest first)
India: WWWWW

Highlights – Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Axar Patel

Scoring quickly against high-quality bowling requires both skill and courage, too Rahmanullah Gurbaz it has both in abundance. He scored 80 off 56 balls in a match where only two of his teammates reached double figures and the opposition – New Zealand – were bowled out for 75 runs. Gurbaz set the pace by hitting 150 and spinning on 145 in T20 cricket. , and that may be a result of how he doesn’t mind taking risks. Such batsmen are difficult to stop when it is their day.

The main focus of this game will be on the mystery spin. But underneath it all, it’s happily flying under the radar, giving visible and invisible results Axar Patel. His left-arm spin is about self-control, but he does so by attacking the stumps, while his batting at number 8 gives India the confidence to bowl one ball. Axar should also be happy that Afghanistan should have two left-handed batsmen in the top eight.

Group news

India have no need to discuss their XI. And despite the West Indies losing, Afghanistan may not.

Afghanistan (probable): 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 (probable): 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

Tone and context

Bridgetown provided ideal batting conditions, as they hosted three of the 200-plus scores seen in the tournament. Weather should not be a problem.

Math and trivia

Afghanistan have played India in 13 matches across all formats, but are yet to win one
Gurbaz (167) and Farooqi (12) are currently the highest scorers and wicket takers respectively, in the 2024 T20 World Cup.
India have not faced Rashid much in T20Is, but in two matches, 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’ve always thought that the toughest part of the T20, the middle [overs] 7 to 14, 7 to 16 – I had thought about that a lot before I made my debut in India – if I do well here, if I hit with a good strike rate, I can be a game changer that day. And the more I continued to do it, the more I felt like this was my game plan going forward. “
Indian batter Suryakumar Yadav

Alagappan Muthu is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo

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Admin June 19, 2024

0 0 3 minutes read