India gear up for Afghanistan clash as Super Eight challenge begins

As Team India finished their group stage fixtures with an unbeaten streak that saw them humble the likes of Ireland, Pakistan and USA while the last game against Canada got washed away, the Men in Blue will be hopeful of a victorious start to their Super Eight campaign.

With a stern challenge on the horizon from Afghanistan who have seemed to be in fine touch so far, Rohit Sharma and company would firstly like to adapt to the new situations in the islands. Their batting hasn't exactly been promising in the first half of the tournament but with a change in surfaces, the top guns of the side would be raring to take the yard.

Afghanistan did manage to weave an unbeaten run for the first three games where they toppled the likes of Uganda, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea comprehensively but when the hosts came knocking, the equation changed completely as the Afghans were beaten by a staggering 104 runs. With the kind of firepower in both the camps, expect this to be a cracker.

Venue Watch:

The track in Kensington Oval isn’t exactly a featherbed. It has a reputation of being two-paced and at times it can also lead to spongy bounce as well. With the first innings average score in the venue being 136, one can expect this clash to be a low-scoring thriller.

Head to Head:

Matches played: 8

India: 7

Afghanistan: 0

Match Details:

Match – India vs Afghanistan

Venue: Kensington Oval, Barbados

Date: 20th April, 2024

Time: 8:00 PM

World Cup face-offs:

Matches played: 3

India: 3

Afghanistan: 0

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj

Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Ishaq, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan (c), Nangyal Kharoti, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad Malik