Clinical India seek T20I series whitewash against Afghanistan

With the series win sealed with two wins in a row, Team India will be eyeing a clean sweep of Afghanistan as they take the yard for the series finale at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on January 17th. The Men in Blue will want to seal the contest without a fuss as that will be a confidence booster ahead of India’s T20 World Cup campaign in July.

The Indian batters have been in effusive touch and will be hoping to replicate similar form with possibly better returns, which may see them eyeing the 200-run mark in the final contest. Tilak Varma and Sanju Samson may get an opportunity to prove their worth while Kuldeep Yadav could also make a return to the XI at Washington Sundar’s expense.

For Afghanistan, they have done a decent job with the bat in their hand. However, their bowling department has been quite a let down in recent times that has allowed the hosts to seal convincing wins. With the kind of firepower that Afghanistan has up in their ranks, they may try to overcome the Men in Blue with a sizzling batting display.

No matter the consequences, both the teams will be eyeing a victorious finish to the series with contrasting objectives in mind. For India, this will be a bid to clinch another whitewash while for Afghanistan, it is a battle of pride and survival.

Venue Watch:

M Chinnaswamy Stadium has always proven to be a featherbed for the batters and most of the contests held here in the shortest format of the game has witnessed a deluge of runs. A total of 17 T20Is have been played at the venue with seven of them won batting first while nine of them while chasing. The average batting score lingers around the 170 mark while the average score batting second drops down to 150+.

Head to Head

Matches played: 7

India – 6

Afghanistan - 0

Match Details:

Match – India vs Afghanistan

Venue: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

Date: 17th January, 2024

Time: 7:00 PM

Squads:

India:  Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar

Afghanistan: Ibrahim Zadran (C), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Ikram Alikhil (WK), Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad, Naveen Ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Saleem, Qais Ahmad, Gulbadin Naib and Rashid Khan.