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
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
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
Source link