In a bid to notch up their first win of the T20 World Cup 2021, India made a couple of changes against Afghanistan, with experienced off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin getting a chance in place of Varun Chakravarathy.
Suryakumar Yadav, who had missed the previous match against New Zealand due to back spasm, has also returned to the set-up in place of Ishan Kishan. "Couple of changes - Surya is back as he's fit. Ashwin replaces Varun who has a bit of a niggle," said Kohli after another toss not going in his favour. The Indians were put in to bat first after Afghanistan won the toss in Abu Dhabi.
Despite returning to the Indian T20I side after a four-year hiatus, the 35-year-old Ashwin had not featured barring the two warm-up matches. He went wicket-less in the first warm-up against England but picked up 2/8 against Australia in the second.
With chances of booking a berth in semi-finals hanging on a thin rope, the Kohli-led Indian unit will look put up a strong show against Afghanistan.
The Indian camp was chasing a perfect swansong for their skipper before two consecutive defeats put even Kohli's ODI captaincy in danger. Despite gathering 224 runs in last five T20I innings, crushing defeats to arch-rivals Pakistan and World Cup nemesis New Zealand have made things tricky for the Indian leader.
One change for Afghanistan
India need to beat Afghanistan, who are placed second on the table with a Net Run Rate (NRR) of (+3.097), Scotland and Namibia by big margins to improve its own NRR.
If India defeat Afghanistan by a huge margin and the Mohammad Nabi-led side beats New Zealand, all three teams will finish on six points, where the NRR will come into the picture.
Afghanistan also have made a change to their team, with Mujeeb Ur Rahman missing from their spin department. "Last game there was a lot of dew in the second half. Mujeeb isn't playing. We always prepare for both, but today we'll bowl first because of dew. We'll play normal cricket and go and enjoy," said Mohammad Nabi after winning the coin toss.
Afghanistan are second in the Group 2 with four points. They won their opening games against Scotland and Namibia and were in the contest against Pakistan for the better part before Asif Ali took the game away with four sixes in one over.
Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan would like to use all their might and T20 experience to stun an under-pressure Indian camp; and further make it three in three to justify their tag of dark horses of the marquee event.
Afghanistan (Playing XI): Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Shahzad(w), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi(c), Gulbadin Naib, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Rashid Khan, Karim Janat, Naveen-ul-Haq, Hamid Hassan
India (Playing XI): KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah
