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RESULT
43rd Match, Super Eights, Group 1, Bridgetown, June 20, 2024, ICC Men's T20 World Cup
181/8
(20 ov, T:182) 134

India won by 47 runs

Player Of The Match
53 (28)
suryakumar-yadav
Cricinfo's MVP
88.78 ptsImpact List
rashid-khan
Preview

Afghanistan's bowlers will ask questions, and India's batters must answer them

While Rashid Khan and Fazalhaq Farooqi could be Afghanistan's trump cards, India could counter them with Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube

Alagappan Muthu
Alagappan Muthu
19-Jun-2024

Match details

Afghanistan vs India
Bridgetown, 10.30am local, 8.00pm IST, 2.30pm GMT

Big picture - India vs Rashid Khan

This January, these two teams produced one of the greatest T20Is ever - one that needed two Super Overs to produce a result - and that was when they were playing less-than-full-strength teams after the series had been decided. The stakes are a lot higher now. So perhaps Afghanistan and India's meeting in the Super Eight of the T20 World Cup 2024 will be a little less spectacle and a little more surgical.
Afghanistan possess a bowling attack capable of asking questions every over, which works out well because they have to find a way past the experience of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli early to level the playing field. With those two out of the picture, anything can happen. That'll be Fazalhaq Farooqi's job. His left-arm angle coupled with the ability to swing the new ball are threats to batters of even the highest quality.
If that happens - and it's a big if - India will come under scoreboard pressure, which is best friends with Rashid Khan. The Afghanistan captain has walked into plenty of situations where the opposition has just started to wobble, and he finishes them off.
It takes a genius to beat a genius, and India are lucky to have Suryakumar Yadav, who has dominated Rashid in T20s, scoring 86 runs in 58 balls at a strike rate of 148 without being dismissed. Shivam Dube goes at a higher strike rate (155) over a smaller sample size (18 balls), but that brings into picture the other advantage that India have: left-hand batters. Rashid has not done as well against them in T20s lately. He kept them down to a strike rate of 109 in 2022 and 2023. This year, it's up at 141.
Afghanistan's bowling is their best strength, but India have them covered. So that means one of Afghanistan's batters will have to have a field day.

Form guide

Afghanistan: LWWWW (Last five completed matches, most recent first)
India: WWWWW

In the spotlight - Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Axar Patel

Scoring quickly against high-quality bowling requires both skill and bravery, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz has both in abundance. He scored 80 off 56 balls in a match where only two of his team-mates reached double-digits and the opposition - New Zealand - were bowled out for 75. Gurbaz hits pace at a strike rate of 150 and spin at 145 in T20 cricket, and that may very well be a function of how he doesn't mind taking risks. Batters like that are hard to stop when it's their day.
So much of the focus in this game will be on mystery spin. But underneath all that, happily flying under the radar, giving both tangible and intangible results is Axar Patel. His left-arm spin is all about containment, but he does that by attacking the stumps, while his batting at No. 8 gives India the confidence to hit out from ball one. Axar should also enjoy the fact that Afghanistan should have only two left-hand batters in their top eight.

Team news

India don't have any need to tinker with their XI. And despite the loss to West Indies, Afghanistan might not either.
Afghanistan (probable): 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Gulbadin Naib, 4 Azmatullah Omarzai, 5 Mohammad Nabi, 6 Najibullah Zadran, 7 Karim Janat, 8 Rashid Khan (capt), 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi
India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rishabh Pant (wk), 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Jasprit Bumrah, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Arshdeep Singh

Pitch and conditions

Bridgetown has offered decent batting conditions, having hosted one of the three 200-plus scores seen in this tournament. The weather shouldn't be a problem.

Stats and trivia

  • Afghanistan have played India in 13 games across formats, but are yet to win one
  • Gurbaz (167) and Farooqi (12) are currently the highest scorer and the highest wicket-taker, respectively, in the T20 World Cup 2024
  • India have not faced Rashid a lot in T20Is, but in two games, they have scored 69 runs in eight overs without losing a single wicket to him
  • Rohit and Kohli are tied on 4042 T20I runs, with only Babar Azam (4145) ahead of them

Quotes

"I always thought that during the most difficult phase of T20, like between [overs] 7 to 14, 7 to 16 - I had thought about that a lot before making my debut for India - if I do well here, if I bat with a good strike rate, then I can be a game-changer on that day. And when I kept doing it repeatedly, I felt that this is my game plan going forward."
India batter Suryakumar Yadav

Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

Language
English
Win Probability
IND 100%
INDAFG
100%50%100%IND InningsAFG Innings

Over 20 • AFG 134/10

Noor Ahmad c Sharma b Arshdeep Singh 12 (18b 1x4 1x6 19m) SR: 66.66
W
India won by 47 runs
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ICC Men's T20 World Cup

Super Eights, Group 1
TeamMWLPTNRR
IND33062.017
AFG3214-0.305
AUS3122-0.331
BAN3030-1.709
Super Eights, Group 2
TeamMWLPTNRR
SA33060.599
ENG32141.992
WI31220.963
USA3030-3.906
Group A
TeamMWLPTNRR
IND43071.137
USA42150.127
PAK42240.294
CAN4123-0.493
IRE4031-1.293
Group B
TeamMWLPTNRR
AUS44082.791
ENG42153.611
SCOT42151.255
NAM4132-2.585
OMA4040-3.062
Group C
TeamMWLPTNRR
WI44083.257
AFG43161.835
NZ42240.415
UGA4132-4.510
PNG4040-1.268
Group D
TeamMWLPTNRR
SA44080.470
BAN43160.616
SL41230.863
NED4132-1.358
NEP4031-0.542