India will lock horns against Afghanistan in their second game of the ongoing World Cup 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Wednesday. The hosts had won their opening game against Australia by six wickets and they will aim to continue the good show against Afghanistan.
On the other hand, Afghanistan suffered a six-wicket loss against Bangladesh in their opener and they will have to play out of their skin to challenge the potent Indian team.
India came up with a collective show in their opening game against Australia with Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul delivering the goods. However, the top order floundered as they found themselves reeling at 2-3 and they can not afford such a precarious situation in every match.
Shubman Gill will continue to miss the action and thus Ishan Kishan will receive another opportunity at the top of the order. Kishan and Shreyas Iyer had played horrible shots against Australia and they would have to pull up their socks.
On the other hand, Afghanistan could only manage 156 runs on the board and they will need to come up with a better batting performance against India. In fact, barring their openers, none of the other batters could get going against Bangladesh.
Match Prediction: India will definitely enter this contest as red-hot favorites against Afghanistan.
Afghanistan squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Naveen ul Haq.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.
