In their first match of the Super 8 round of the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the Indian cricket team will be going one-on-one against the Afghanistan team. The two sides are all set to play against each other on Thursday at the Kensington Oval in Bridgeton, Barbados.
India and Afghanistan form a part of the Group 1 alongside Bangladesh and Australia and the two teams will be eager to put up their best performances on Thursday to kick-start the Super 8 round with a victory.
Rohit Sharma & Men are yet to lose a game in the tournament as their bowling unit has been doing wonders with the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Arshdeep Singh dishing out sensational performances.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, has recorded one defeat in the league but they have also gained good momentum owing to a series of brilliant performances.
What has happened so far?
In the league round, the Indian cricket team finished at the top of the Group A points table with three wins and one abandoned game from as many as four league matches. After winning their warm-up fixture against Bangladesh, India went on to defeat Ireland, Pakistan, and the United States of America by eight wickets, six runs, and seven wickets respectively.
However, the team’s last league match against Canada was washed out without a toss because of harsh weather conditions in Florida. As far as Afghanistan is concerned, they picked up a good pace in the league round with three consecutive wins against Uganda, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea by 125 runs, 84 runs, and seven wickets respectively.
However, the team succumbed to its first defeat in the T20 World Cup 2024 in the final league game against West Indies. Afghanistan was let down by their batting unit as they scored only 114 runs while chasing a massive score of 218 runs in the allotted 20 overs. The 104-run loss resulted in Rashid Khan’s men finishing in second place in the Group C points table.
Head to Head Record
The Afghanistan cricket team is yet to score a win against India in the shortest format of the game. The two teams have faced each other in a total of eight encounters and India emerged victorious in as many as seven games while one match was abandoned.
Key Players
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Afghanistan): Rahmanullah Gurbaz will be the player to watch out for as Afghanistan will square off against India in their first Super 8 encounter. The 22-year-old has been ruling the run-scoring charts with a whopping 147 runs to his name in just four matches at an average of 41.75.
Gurbaz stepped up with a stunning knock of 80 runs off just 56 balls with the help of five boundaries and as many maximums as the Afghanistan team caused a massive upset for the Kiwis by scoring a victory by 84 runs. The wicketkeeper-batter is expected to pull out another stunner on Thursday to help his team record another victory.
Jasprit Bumrah is one of the top performers for India in the T20 World Cup 2024
Jasprit Bumrah (India): Jasprit Bumrah has been the force to reckon with in the 2024 edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. The ace seamer has been in excellent form in the tournament having won the Player of the Match award in two of India’s three league games.
India’s first game against Ireland saw Bumrah picking up two wickets to restrict the opposition to a paltry score of 96 runs in their allotted 20 overs. Meanwhile, it was the encounter against Pakistan that saw the ace seamer deliver one of the best performances as he picked three wickets at an economy rate of 3.5 to help the Men in Blue defend a low score of 119 runs.
The 30-year-old is expected to churn out another sensational performance on Thursday so that India can kick-start their campaign in the Super 8 round of the T20 Championship with a win.
Predicted XIs
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan ©, Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi
India: Rohit Sharma ©, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj
Prediction
India will enter the Thursday contest as favorites as they have been in impeccable form in the tournament so far. The Men in Blue have excelled in all three facets of the game be it batting, bowling, or fielding, and are likely to continue the momentum in the Super 8 round as well.
The Afghanistan cricket team also dished out a good performance in the league round. However, they might be under-confident against Rohit Sharma & Men considering their poor performance in the head-to-head stats against India.