India opt to bat first against Afghanistan in Super 8 match of T20 World Cup

India Thursday won the toss and elected to bat first against Afghanistan in their first Super Eight match of the Twenty20 World Cup in Bridgetown.

Both India and Afghanistan made one change to their squad from their last group stage matches. India opted for Kuldeep Yadav who replaced fast bowler Muhammad Siraj while Afghanistan replaced Karim Janat with Hazratullah Zazai.

Indian captain Rohit said the track looks alright but he doesn't know how it'll play.

“Feel it'll get slower. Better than New York, we won there which was more important. Need to adapt now. We've been here 3-4 days and have practised.”

Afghanistan captain Rashid said in T20s execution matters more than toss.

“We'd have batted first as well but in T20s toss doesn't matter as much as execution. Happy with how things have gone so far, especially with the batters. Need to do the right things at the right time and control emotions as we go. We've been here couple of days longer than India.”

This is India's first game in the West Indies in this edition. Their batters, like most, had a tough time in New York but came out undefeated. Rishabh Pant's cameo against Pakistan was arguably the most crucial contribution in the low-scoring game. Tough conditions also mitigate concerns around Kohli's lack of runs at the top

Afghanistan possess a bowling attack capable of asking questions every over, which works out well because they have to find a way past the experience of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli early to level the playing field. With those two out of the picture, anything can happen. That'll be Fazalhaq Farooqi's job. His left-arm angle coupled with the ability to swing the new ball are threats to batters of even the highest quality.

Bridgetown has offered decent batting conditions, having hosted one of the three 200-plus scores seen in this tournament.

Squads:

Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Rashid Khan (capt), Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi

India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh