T20 WC Super 8 Match: India Have To Perform Today Against Afghanistan
- By Thetripurapost Desk, Barbados
- Jun 20, 2024
- 239
The Indian cricket team will face Afghanistan today in its first match of the Super-8 stage of the T20 World Cup. All eyes will be on Virat Kohli's bat, who has been silent for a long time, while left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav will also be desperate to make a place in the final eleven.
There is a lot of discussion about the Indian team combination for this match. It remains to be seen whether India will play without making any changes in the group stage team or will give Kuldeep a chance in place of a specialist fast bowler.
Whatever happens, the team will have to show a game above super against the Afghan power to make it to the knockouts.
At the beginning of the tournament, captain Rohit Sharma insisted on keeping four all-rounders (Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dubey, Akshar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja) in the playing eleven.
This strategy proved to be effective for India on the bowler-friendly pitch in New York. This gives depth to the batting till number eight. Now it remains to be seen whether the captain tampers with this combination or not.
To bring Kuldeep in the team, Mohammad Siraj or Arshdeep Singh will have to be kept out. If this happens, Siraj may have to stay out. If we look at the two practice sessions of the Indian team, Kuldeep's claim is strengthened due to the pitch helping the spinners.
Virat has not yet reached double figures in this tournament. Virat has scored the highest 201 runs for India in T20 International against Afghanistan. This includes a century as well, now a better performance is expected from him in West Indies.
Shivam, who was included in the team to hit sixes in the middle and death overs, has been seen in his form only once so far. He could not play freely on the pitches of America, but now he would like to play big shots. India's star T20 batsman Suryakumar Yadav scored runs against America by playing contrary to his style.
Hardik Pandya, who is doing great in bowling, has not been able to score runs. Arshdeep's performance in bowling has improved match by match and he is supporting Jasprit Bumrah well. It will be interesting to see how many spinners India will field on a spinner-friendly pitch. If Kuldeep comes in the team in place of a pacer, then there will be three left-arm spinners in the Indian attack and it will not be easy for the Afghan batsmen to escape from these three.
On the other hand, the Afghanistan team has reached here after suffering a crushing defeat from the West Indies in the last match of the group stage. Its bowlers, who proved to be decisive in the first three matches, were proved to be nineteen by the West Indies batsmen.
The top scorer in the group stage has been from Afghanistan while the top bowler was also an Afghan player.