|
After securing a hard-fought victory against Australia, the Indian team will be eyeing their second consecutive victory in the World Cup campaign with Afghanistan looking to be a major hurdle.
With the 'Men in Blue' marching into the game as hot favourites on paper, Afghanistan will look to defy the odds and register their first WC 2023 victory. Both teams are filled with talented players, but all eyes will be on two players - Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq. The Indian Premier League (IPL) clash between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants saw a heated moment between stalwart batter Virat Kohli and Afghanistan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq. After that clash, both players will face each other for the time since that face-off. Other than this much-talked-about rivalry, there are a few other aspects that will be on showcase. Shubman Gill will once again miss India's World Cup clash as he continues to recover from illness. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday ruled out Gill from India's clash against Afghanistan in Delhi after confirming that he stayed in Chennai under the supervision of the medical team. Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour was quizzed about an update on Gill while referring to a news item that he was hospitalized and then he has been brought back to the hotel. He shed some light on the matter and said in the pre-match press conference, "He is recovering well. He was hospitalized, yes, but that was more as a precaution. He is back in the hotel; he is recovering well. So, being monitored by the medical team and whatever update we get, we are hoping that he will recover pretty soon. He is looking good actually." In Gill's absence, India is likely to stick with the same playing XI that they named in the World Cup campaign opener against Australia. Ishan Kishan will be the most viable option to open alongside skipper Rohit Sharma. With India having a few setbacks in their batting department, Afghanistan are also dealing with issues of their own in the batting department. In their first WC encounter, Afghanistan batters failed to deliver as they were bowled out for just 156 runs in Dharamsala. The captain said the batters needed to overcome the pressure and post a strong score for the bowlers to defend. "I made a statement at the beginning that we will play good cricket as a batting side. We have a good spin bowling attack, but only one department can't win you games. You have to score runs for that, to win the game," Shahidi said during a pre-match press conference. "As a team, we have that belief that we can come back in the next game and throughout the tournament, so the belief is there and the talent is there and we will try to move on and make it better and improve in tomorrow's game," he added. India WC squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav. Afghanistan WC squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Naveen ul Haq. (ANI)
|
