The current Indian team is going through one of their worst run in ICC tournaments, as they have already lost their first two matches against arch-rivals Pakistan and New Zealand in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021. This is the first time in the last 22 years, team India have lost the first two matches in any World Cup.
The last time this happened was way back in 1999 World Cup when Mohammad Azharuddin-led side lost their first two matches against South Africa and Zimbabwe. And this is not the first time that India might crash out from the group stage of any World Cup, earlier team India were sent out packing in the group stages of the World Cups, was in 2007, 2009 (T20 World Cup) and 2010 (T20 World Cup).
Today, India will be playing Afghanistan in their do or die match for their semi-final spot. Though, team India’s chances to qualify for the semi-finals, are very slim, as Pakistan have already booked their place for the semi-finals and New Zealand will most likely be the second team to qualify for the semi-finals until they do not do something unexpected.
Before the match starts, let’s have a look at both of the teams, head-to-head records and players to watch-out for.
Considering this is a do or die match, team India will not make many changes but Virat Kohli might include Ravichandran Ashwin in place of Varun Chakravarthy. Afghanistan has been playing a good brand of cricket in this World Cup and it might be difficult for the Indian side to defeat them. Afghanistan has got two world-class spinners in Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman and looking at the current scenario of Indian batsmen – who are having difficulties playing against spin – the spin duo of Afghanistan will be a threat to the Indian batting line-up.
Predicted Playing 11 India: Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Shami
Predicted Playing 11 Afghanistan: Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Usman Ghani, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi (c), Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Hamid Hassan, Naveen Ul Haq
Players to watch out for:
Rashid Khan
Rohit Sharma
And Mujeeb Ur Rahman
The match will start from 7:30 pm ISt on Stra Sports Network and OTT streaming platform Disney Plus Hotstar.