🏏India vs Afghanistan, 1st ODI, AFG tour of India 2026, Dharamsala🏏 - Page 6

India won the toss and opted to bowl first.

India have won the toss and have opted to field

Pitch report by Murali Kartik: The pitch was covered for more than 12 hours, but there is no moisture or dampness on the surface, it's just the ground temperature and it looks like a pretty good surface. It's been a high-scoring venue in the IPL. The ball travels because it's high altitude and this is still gonna be a high-scoring venue. 25 overs a side, which means that it's a truncated game. It's gonna be a big one. Maybe 200, 220 is on the cards, is what I feel. As I said, it's a well-rolled surface, even sprinkling of grass in the good length and I would say that any side which is going to win the toss is gonna look to chase.

Zadran Good luck

I am not impressed with Indian bowling options May or may not work.

Thanks for the tag Madhu.

May the best team win.

Hang on this turned into a T20 game now.!

Ishan playing Told you so

India have won the toss and have opted to field

Hashmatullah Shahidi - If we had won the toss, we also wanted to bowl first, but again, toss is not in our hands and we need to start well right from the start of the game. We did very well in recent past, but at the same time, it's our first time we are playing India in their own condition. So it's been a tough battle for both the sides and we are excited and ready for that challenge and hopefully we do well here. We have three seamers and three spinners combination. So two seamers, one all-rounder and three spinners.

Shubman Gill - We're going to bowl first. It's a little overcast, so I think it will help the bowlers. There could also be some rain around the corner, so we want to bowl first. As for the surface, it looks very good. I think it's going to be a good wicket to bat on. In the initial overs, there might be some seam movement, but after the breeze dies down, I think it's going to be a really good wicket. Honestly, for this series, it's all about trying different combinations and seeing what really works for us. We don't play that many ODIs anymore - leading up to the World Cup, we are only playing around 15 to 20 ODIs - so it's all about trying different combinations and seeing what our strengths are. Now that it's a 25-overs-a-side game, it is definitely a completely different ball game. But our team is unchanged. We are going with two debutants: Gurnoor Brar and Harsh Dubey will make their debuts today. Jaiswal, Prince and Kuldeep miss out.

Teams:

Afghanistan (Playing XI): Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (w), Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Saleem Safi, AM Ghazanfar, Zia Ur Rahman Sharifi

India (Playing XI): Shubman Gill(c), Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna

Baz is flying

Positive start from AFG

The match is now down to 25 overs per side and the Afghan openers have shown some intent right away. Expect them to score 40 runs in the 5-over powerplay