Abu Dhabi: After suffering crushing defeats at the hands of Pakistan and New Zealand, India will eye to beat Afghanistan by a huge margin to keep their hopes alive in the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
Another defeat will confirm India's early exit from the tournament. Therefore, India will look to go all guns blazing to script a huge win in tomorrow's match to bring down Afghanistan's net run rate to +3.097.
Kohli's side will then hope to see Afghanistan beating New Zealand. If all three teams secure six points, qualification will depend upon net run rate.
With such a huge task cut for them, India will be in tremendous pressure. The task to beat Afghanistan may not be easy as well because the tails of their rivals are up after winning two games out of the three.
On the flipside, India have lost their first two matches badly, and they will be facing Afghanistan who have not let their rivals register a win against them after putting 160 plus total on the board since the start of 2016.
And, interestingly, Kohli is the only Indian batsman with a T20 half-century against Afghanistan. Moreover, India's batting has not clicked in the tournament so far. However, they will hope Rahul will come good at the top. It will be interesting to see if Suryakumar will return to the team.
The bowling, too, has been off-taste. Jasprit Bumrah was the lone crusader in the last match. Ravichandran Ashwin may get a look in place of Varun Chakravarthy.
Being India's third match in the tournament, their think-tank have not yet got their combination right. Not only Kohli made changes in the team but also in batting order against New Zealand.
Kohli had drafted in Ishan Kishan and Shardul Thakur in place of the injured Suryakumar Yadav and off-color Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, and also sent the southpaw wicketkeeper-batsman to open with KL Rahul against New Zealand. These changes failed to make any impression.
Despite these problems at hands, India's track record against Afghanistan has been clean-sheeted. The only time India met Afghanistan was in the T20 World Cups. India won by seven wickets in the 2009 edition and the second match in 2012 was close, with India claiming a 23-run win.
Afghanistan's batting also has been good. They have played attacking shots and helped their team to put up a good total on the board. Usman Ghani is likely to get a chance in place of the retired Asghar Afghan.
Afghanistan already boasts of having two high-quality spin bowlers including Rashid Khan, but an addition of Mujeeb Ur Rahman will add more spice to their bowling attack. Rashid is in great form and is a potential threat for Indian batsmen.
Afghanistan will be looking to play spectacular cricket against a diffident Indian side. (UNI)
