India is likely to bring Deepak Chahar and Dinesh Karthik into the lineup for their last Asia Cup match on Thursday, September 8 in Dubai. (Photos: PTI)India vs Afghanistan, Asia Cup 2022 Match Probable Playing XIs: A day after their hopes of featuring in the Asia Cup final were extinguished, India and Afghanistan will feature in the tournament for the last time, looking to bow out with dignity and some plus points ahead of the T20 World Cup in a month’s time. Both the teams had won both their group games in the tournament and have now lost consecutive matches to Sri Lanka and Pakistan. While India’s exit from the tournament ahead of the final did come off as a surprise, Afghanistan were a shoe in from averting both their and India’s early exit when Naseem Shah smashed two sixes off the last over to register a one wicket win for Pakistan.
India vs Afghanistan, T20 Asia Cup 2022 Super 4 Live Score Updates
While it is unlikely that Mohammad Nabi & co. would make any changes in their second match in 24 hours time, The Indian Express argues for the inclusion of Dinesh Karthik and Deepak Chahar in India’s XI.
Karthik returns for Pant
Despite his T20 style of batting in Test cricket, Rishabh Pant’s form with the bat in T20Is has been a cause of concern for the Indian team. So far this year, Pant has scored 291 runs in 15 innings at a strike rate touching 134. Even at this Asia Cup, Pant has only mustered 14 off 12 and 17 off 13 deliveries in the two outings he’s had. At the same time, India’s lower middle order hasn’t been able to score big in the death overs in their last two Super 4 games.
Dinesh Karthik was a designated finisher for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2022 and has shown that he can don the role in India’s blues as well. With a handful of T20 games left before the World Cup, India would surely want to give Karthik, who’s only got to bat one ball at this Asia Cup so far, to get him in the groove.
Chahar in for Ashwin
The absence of an extra pacer has troubled the balance of Indian bowling attack in UAE in their last couple of matches. With only two seamers playing in the XI (Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh), Hardik Pandya looked under pressure in the early stages of the game, having to operate as a third seamer more so than a bowling all rounder.
“Before Asia Cup, we had four seamers, two spinners and one of them being an all-rounder. I always wanted to try and find out what happens when you play three seamers and two spinners and one seamer is an all-rounder. When you play with quality, you want to challenge yourself. The fourth seamer was not available, as he (Avesh Khan) was sick,” Rohit Sharma had said after the India-Sri Lanka match on Tuesday.
Spin working for Team India! Two wickets fall in quick succession.
Danushka Gunathilaka and Kusal Mendis depart.
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 6, 2022
With Deepak Chahar added to the squad in place of Avesh Khan, India would like to go with the full fledged pace attack at their hands. This of course, is likely to come at the cost of an extra spinner in the team, either Yuzvendra Chahal or Ravichandran Ashwin. But with Chahal having picked a 3fer in the last match and the team management having turned to him more often in the format, it is more likely that Ashwin makes way for Chahar.
India vs Afghanistan Head to head
India and Afghanistan have played only three T20Is against each other, with the former having a 100 percent win record so far.
India vs Afghanistan Pitch Report
Teams batting second have found more success, even in chasing big totals. Both teams would prefer to chase under the lights.
India vs Afghanistan Weather Report
Rain? No, we don’t do that in Dubai this time of the year. The forecast predicts yet another warm and sunny day with the temperature rising to as much as 39 degree Celcius.
India vs Afghanistan Predicted Playing XIs
India (Playing XI): KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.
Afghanistan (Playing XI): Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi(c), Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi.
India vs Afghanistan Squads
India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Deepak Hooda, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi
Afghanistan: Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi(c), Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Samiullah Shinwari, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afsar Zazai, Usman Ghani, Naveen-ul-Haq, Noor Ahmad