The India lock horns with Afghanistan as Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and elected to bat first against Rohit Sharma's brigade in their World Cup clash at the Arun Jaitley stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday, October 11.
India skipper Rohit dropped ace spinner R Ashwin from playing XI and brought in star bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur for clash against Afghanistan.
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Rohit Sharma after losing the toss said,"We were looking to bat second. We saw the amount of dew last evening. Don't think the wicket will change much. Need to bowl well and need to come back and bat better. We were under pressure (against Australia) to start with, but KL and Kohli batted well, they were magnificent and we take a lot of pride in our performance. It was a good game for us, hopefully we can repeat that and keep the momentum going forward. Ashwin misses out, Shardul Thakur comes in for him."
Meanwhile, Afghani captain Shahidi said," We will bat first. It looks like a good batting surface. We have a good bowling attack to restrict them. It looks like a good surface, we want to bounce back with the bat. We are enjoying, good chance to showcase our talent. We are going with the same team."
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Head-to-head record in ODIs
India have registered two victories over Afghanistan, while one match ended in a draw.
Pitch report
“It looks a belter, looks a fabulous wicket. The average first innings total is 230 at this venue, but South Africa got 428 against Sri Lanka. Sanjay Manjrekar thinks 350 should be a par score. Going to be tough for off spinners given these dimensions. If India bat first they should get 350, given the size of the boundaries,” Gautam Gambhir analysed the pitch.
Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi.
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
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