After outplaying Australia in their opening match, India will aim for another commanding performance against Afghanistan in the World Cup 2023 match in Delhi on Wednesday, October 11, 2023.
Afghanistan suffered a six wicket defeat in their opening match against Bangladesh as they collapsed against spin to be bowled out for a lowly 156.
India did well to bounce back after a horror start on a tough pitch at the M A Chidambaram stadium in Chennai and their batsmen will certainly relish the good batting conditions at New Delhi's Arun Jaitley stadium.
Shubman Gill will once again miss out after failing to recover from dengue with Ishan Kishan getting another opportunity to open the batting.
A good batting performance will be high on priority for the Indians with an eye on the all-important clash against Pakistan at the Narendra Modi stadium on Saturday.
All eyes will be on local hero Virat Kohli who has a stand named after him at the stadium. Kohli was instrumental in India's victory against Australia with a dogged half-century in a high-pressure run chase and he will be looking forward to treat his home fans to another vintage knock.
K L Rahul continued his good form with an unbeaten 97 to steer India to victory with some intelligent batting in the middle overs. He is fast becoming one of the most dependable batters for India in 50 overs cricket alongside Kohli.
If the pitch is not spin friendly like it was in Chennai, India might consider a change in their bowling. They might bring in an extra pacer in either Mohammed Shami or Shardul Thakur to replace Ravichandran Ashwin.
The match could come down to a battle between India's power-packed batting versus Afghanistan's spinners.
Spin wizard Rashid Khan could be the key for Afghanistan. He has a lot of experience of bowling in Indian conditions, courtesy of playing in the IPL over the last few years.
Rashid has taken 172 wickets in 95 matches at an economy rate of 4.22 and he will want to make an impact against India after going wicketless in the previous game against Bangladesh.
He has played only two ODIs against India so far, taking three wickets at an economy rate of 3.98.
It will be interesting to see whether India opt to play out Rashid safely and not give him any easy wickets as the leggie is capable of running through any batting order on his day.
India also need to be watch out for Afghanistan pacers Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq, who also have considerable experience of Indian conditions in the IPL.
India have won two out of three ODIs played against Afghanistan, with one finishing in a tie when Rashid defended seven runs off the final over in a thrilling finish in the 2018 Asia Cup match in Dubai.
India would have tried out a couple of bench players against Afghanistan, but so early into the World Cup India would rather go in with their best possible XI and look to continue the winning momentum.
Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, K L Rahul (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj.
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