🏏India vs Afghanistan, 1st T20I- PCA,IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali 🏏

🏏India vs Afghanistan, 1st T20I- PCA,IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali  🏏 

India and Afghanistan will play the first match of the T20 Series 2024 today. The match will be at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali. In this match, the Indian team will be led by Rohit Sharma, and the Afghanistan team will be led by Ibrahim Zadran.

This is the first time that the Afghanistan team will take on India after an impressive World Cup campaign and hopes to register their first-ever victory against the Men in Blue in the first T20 International. 

Rashid Khan, the legspinner who is recovering following a lower-back surgery, is ruled out of the T20 international series against India.

The series marks the final leg of India's preparations for the 2024 T20 World Cup and Rohit, who has not featured in the shortest format for India since their semifinal exit at the 2022 World Cup in Australia, is back at the helm. 

After a middling IPL 2023 season, Rohit turned around his form and approach to white-ball cricket with a near-600-run World Cup campaign at home, silencing all critics. His recall—alongside Kohli's -- for the only international series left ahead of the World Cup can't be a stop-gap arrangement, and it indicates that he and Kohli still remain in India's plans for the marquee event six months later.

The same can also be implied for the returning Sanju Samson, who has forced his way back with a maiden international ODI ton in South Africa recently and seems to have staved off competition from the hard-hitting finisher Jitesh Sharma for now. 

What XI India picks and persists with through the series, especially in regard to their top-six, will largely be a window into the selectors' and team management's mindset for the showpiece event. 

The pace-bowling department in particular is missing a few key names as well, presenting a final opportunity to those on the fringes to make their case for a World Cup ticket.

Afghanistan, meanwhile, have been dealt with a cruel blow on the eve of the series opener, with their experienced all-rounder Rashid ruled out. 

The regular T20I captain of the side hasn't played competitive cricket since the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, skipping the ongoing BBL due to a lower-back surgery. 

The India series was touted to be his comeback, and he did travel with the team, but on the eve of the curtain-raiser, he hasn't been deemed match-fit yet and will continue his rehabilitation instead on the sidelines.

What to expect: Dew, for starters. Winter is at its peak in the northern belt and expected dew in the evenings would be a major deciding factor for the captain winning the toss. Mohali otherwise has dished out batting-friendly conditions, albeit with some of the biggest square boundaries.

Weather Prediction

The weather conditions in Mohali are set to be hazy. According to AccuWeather, there is a zero percent probability of rain and thunderstorms in the next 24 hours. The temperature is expected to range between 20 and 3 degrees Celsius, and winds are expected to blow at a speed of around 9 km/hr in the north-west direction in the day and 13 km/h in the north-west direction at night. The possibility of wind gusts with a speed of 24 km/h during the next 24 hours. There is a zero percent probability of cloud cover during the next 24 hours.

India Probable playing XI

Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma/Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar

Afghanistan  Probable playing XI

Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 3 Ibrahim Zadran (C), Azmatullah Omarzai, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib/Karim Janat, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Qais Ahmed, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi

What is heartening for the visitors is the return of players like Mujeeb ur Rahman and Naveen-ul-Haq, whose IPL experience they can bank on, after the Afghanistan Cricket Board recently softened its stance regarding the trio's participation in franchise leagues after having temporarily cancelled the NOCs in between. 

As a result, Mujeeb wasn't part of the recent UAE series, while the other two had managed to reach a compromise with the board just in time to feature on that trip.

India Vs Afghanistan: Head-to-head

Before the first bilateral series, both India and Afghanistan faced each other three times in the T20 World Cups and once in the Asia Cup, where India won all four matches.

What about the test matches??

India Vs Afghanistan: Win prediction:

According to CricTracker, India will win the match no matter who wins the toss. But as per Times now, the Rohit Sharma led side have a 60 percent chance of winning if they bat first, but the winning percentage rises to 70 if Afghanistan bats first.

As per details, from India, Virat Kohli is unavailable for selection for this match, as he cited personal reasons. But it is expected he will be available for the next two matches.

For Afghanistan Rashid Khan has been ruled as he is still recovering from lower-back surgery.

Originally posted by: Viswasruti

What is heartening for the visitors is the return of players like Mujeeb ur Rahman and Naveen-ul-Haq, whose IPL experience they can bank on, after the Afghanistan Cricket Board recently softened its stance regarding the trio's participation in franchise leagues after having temporarily cancelled the NOCs in between. 

As a result, Mujeeb wasn't part of the recent UAE series, while the other two had managed to reach a compromise with the board just in time to feature on that trip.

India Vs Afghanistan: Head-to-head

Before the first bilateral series, both India and Afghanistan faced each other three times in the T20 World Cups and once in the Asia Cup, where India won all four matches.

Team News

India

Rohit is set to join Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top of the order. And with Kohli unavailable in Mohali, Shubman Gill will take the No.3 spot. Samson might take the gloves after his century show in South Africa.

Afghanistan

Rashid's absence greatly impacts the team balance but Mujeeb's inclusion for the India series, after his recent run-in with the ACB, nearly confirms his return to the XI especially given his IPL experience as well. Noor Ahmad too could get the nod.

What they said

As of now, we will be certainly opening with Rohit and Jaiswal. But when you have a squad, you have to have that flexibility to do whatever is required if that is in the best interest of the team and gives us the best chance to succeed.So nothing is closed. But certainly, we're really happy with what Jaiswal has done as an opener for us, and he gives us a left-right combination as well at the top. - Rahul Dravid

Without Rashid, we will struggle as his experience is invaluable, but even in his absence, we have got quality spinners in Mujeeb [Ur Rahman], [Mohammad] Nabi, Noor [Ahmad] and Qais [Ahmad] All of them have played a lot of cricket, and we have trust in them. - Ibrahim Zadran

With Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav injured, whether Ro-Ko's return to India's T20I scheme of things is a temporary alignment remains to be seen, although it's believed that both have been drafted back into the squad with an eye of the T20 World Cup taking place in the USA and West Indies in June. While India started as overwhelming favorites, they would be mindful of the surprises Afghanistan pulled off at the World Cup by beating eventual semi-finalists South Africa in the league stage and registering their first-ever win against Pakistan.

 Afghanistan will be without Rashid Khan as he is yet to recover completely from his surgery but India can't afford to count the opposition out.