Big picture: Afghanistan’s home at away team’s capital
About 12.5km from the Arun Jaitley Stadium is Lajpat Nagar, originally a refugee colony and now home to, among others, thousands of Afghans who run their own restaurants, nuts shops, pharmacies, currency exchanges and advertise those establishments in Persian script. “Mini Kabul”, as some call it, is a good host. Their waiters will describe ashak, an Afghan dumpling dish, to you as dal-momo so the local predominantly Punjabi population knows what exactly it is.
At the ground back in central Delhi, Afghanistan cricketers won’t be as welcoming. Having not played any T20I cricket since the World Cup in February, Afghanistan, under a new captain but with the core intact, will know they have a serious opportunity against an Indian team in transition.
Since becoming the first team to successfully defend a T20 World Cup, India have lost series in Ireland – their first in three years – and England. The win in Zimbabwe doesn’t tell you much, but now they are almost back to full strength. Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy will make their return; only Hardik Pandya and Harshit Rana have been ruled out with injuries.
Form guide
Afghanistan WWLLL (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
India WWWLL
In the spotlight: Rashid Khan and Shreyas Iyer
Team news: Naveen, Bumrah back?
The main question for Afghanistan will be whether they want one or two seamers to go with the allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai. If it is only one, they will have to choose between the tried-and-tested Fazalhaq Farooqi and the returning Naveen. Should they play both of them, one of Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Noor Ahmad might have to sit out.
Afghanistan (probable): 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran (capt), 3 Gulbadin Naib, 4 Sediqullah Atal, 5 Darwish Rasooli, 6 Azmatullah Omarzai, 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 10 Noor Ahmad, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi/ Naveen-ul-Haq
Apart from the difficult choice at the top, India have a host of allrounders to choose from: Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel and Shivam Dube. Bumrah, Varun and Arshdeep Singh should play as the specialist bowlers but Rana’s absence leaves them with a difficult choice for No. 8: a specialist bowler who can’t hit sixes or a batting allrounder who might not always be relied upon to bowl four overs. In England, they went in with an allrounder at No. 8, in Zimbabwe a specialist bowler. In India, how will they go?
India (probable): 1 and 2: Two out of Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Sanju Samson, 3 Ishan Kishan (wk), 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy
Pitch and conditions: Early-season uncertainty
Delhi might not have been among the quickest-scoring grounds during this year’s IPL, but even in the middle of the table it conceded a hefty 9.63 per over. Given the small boundaries, barring a lack of pace or early-season seam movement, Delhi should make for big scores. The monsoon has all but left northern India, and even if the clouds clear their throats a little bit, it shouldn’t affect the match at night.
Stats and trivia: Rashid eyes 200 T20I wickets
- If Sooryavanshi gets a game this series, he will become the youngest player from a Full Member side to play international cricket in India.
- Mohammad Nabi is already the oldest man from a Full Member team to play a T20I in India.
- Iyer has won the toss in each of his first nine international games as captain, a record already.
- Nabi is 52 short of becoming the first Afghan to 2500 T20I runs.
- Rashid is seven away from becoming the first man to 200 T20I wickets.
Quotes
“It is a new responsibility for me as a player and as a captain now. I have to take the right decisions, especially under pressure. With [Rashid Khan], there is understanding between us. When he was captain, I was helping him as vice-captain. And we have played enough cricket here in India. We know the conditions, how to play, how to adjust ourselves. We have played the T20 World Cup. We have played the ODI World Cup as well. We know the conditions very well. We just need to execute our plans.”
Ibrahim Zadran on being Afghanistan’s new T20I captain
“The amount of matches a player is playing continuously, rigorously, he is bound to get injured some way or the other because the intensity is pretty high. We also need to understand that no player thinks of getting injured deliberately. It is because they are putting in the effort for the team, and if that effort turns out to be on the negative side, you can’t control it. All you can control is whoever is available on that given day, we give confidence to that particular player.”
Shreyas Iyer on India’s recent spate of injuries
Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at Cricinfo
