🏏India vs Afghanistan, 2nd T20I-Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore 🏏

🏏India vs Afghanistan, 2nd T20I-Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore on 14/01/2024 at 7PM IST  🏏

Afghanistan ready with their spinners as Kohli returns to T20I cricket

It should be a high-scoring game in warm Indore after the players struggled in the bitter cold of Mohali in the first game

Rohit Sharma's T20I return with the bat was unspectacular; both Virat Kohli (personal reasons) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (groin injury) were unavailable for the Mohali T20I, but India still eased past Afghanistan.

For Afghanistan, Rashid Khan has been ruled out of the entire three-match series, but they can still be a dangerous T20 team on their day. Six players in the XI that played on Thursday have IPL contracts and almost all their players feature in franchise T20 - and T10 - leagues around the world.

Rohit checks most boxes, but not the big one

Kohli is set to return for the second T20I in Indore - India's second last before the T20 World Cup gets underway in the USA and the West Indies in June. He hasn't scored freely against spin in T20 cricket - he has the second-lowest strike rate against spin among batters who have played at least 50 innings in the IPL in the past five seasons - so, this will be a good test for him against Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi. There is also considerable interest around whether Rohit can dominate T20I powerplays like he did the ODI powerplays at the World Cup last year.

The inclusion of Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar has given India six bowling options and stretches their batting down to No. 8. Dube was dropped for the T20I series in South Africa and had previously warmed the bench during the home T20Is against Australia, but could make a serious case to be picked in India's T20 World Cup squad as Hardik Pandya's back-up, especially if he has a strong IPL season.

Afghanistan bat deeper than India, with Mujeeb 2.0 and Naveen-ul-Haq carded at Nos. 9 and 10, but they have some problems at the top. They tried to fit two anchors in their top four - captain Ibrahim Zadran right at the top and debutant Rahmat Shah at No. 4 - but the approach didn't work. That Afghanistan eventually reached 158 for 5 was down to the middle-order muscle of Nabi and Najibullah Zadran. Unless they post a bigger total, it's hard to see them challenge India.

India vs Afghanistan Pitch Report

The Holkar Stadium in Indore has shorter boundaries, which makes the venue a batter's paradise. In the last game on this surface, South Africa put up a score of 227 and ended up defending it. Hence, with bowlers playing a role in the second innings, the captain winning the toss would likely bat first.

India vs Afghanistan Weather Report

The weather conditions will be supportive on match day, with no rain prediction. Unlike Mohali, the temperature in Indore will remain around 22 degrees Celsius and will drop to 17 degrees towards the end of the game.

VK is back with vengeance!💙

In the spotlight: Jitesh Sharma and Azmatullah Omarzai

Jitesh Sharma is among the most explosive finishers in the IPL. He's brought that power to T20Is as well, having a strike rate of over 150 after six innings. His cameos against Australia and more recently against Afghanistan at his IPL home ground in Mohali have seen him edge ahead as India's first-choice keeper-batter for now in T20Is. He has also been sharp behind the stumps against both pace and spin.

Azmatullah Omarzai poses a dual threat to India with his big-hitting and ability to swing the ball. In the first T20I, Omarzai showed glimpses of his skills with the bat at No.3, but Afghanistan need more from him, and he's capable of that. If there's some early swing on offer at the Holkar Stadium, there's a case for Afghanistan to pair Omarzai up with Fazalhaq Farooqi in the powerplay and hold Mujeeb back for the middle and death overs.

Stats and trivia:

• Kohli on the brink of another landmark
• Kohli is 35 runs away from becoming the first Indian - and fourth overall - to score 12,000 runs in T20 cricket.
• India had lost 11 tosses in a row across formats before Rohit finally won one in Mohali.
• Rahmat played 106 ODIs before his first T20I on Thursday. He had made his ODI debut in March 2013.

Team News

India: Virat Kohli will be back for India and is likely to be slotted one-down. Yashasvi Jaiswal, who missed the first T20I with a sore right groin, should also be back at the top in place of Shubman Gill.

Probable XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma(w), Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar

Afghanistan:Noor Ahmad could come in for the visitors.

Probable XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran (c), Rahmat Shah, Azmatullah Omarzai, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

What they said

"(I) was playing after a long time, and batting at number four there was some pressure on me. I had one thing in my mind that I have to play my game. First 2-3 balls, I felt a bit of pressure, after that I just focused on the ball and didn't think much on what's going on. In T20s, I know how I bat, and I know I can hit big sixes, so I can generate runs any time." - Shivam Dube.

"We have to improve our fielding, we were a bit lazy. We'll try to improve our batting as well. In bowling, there's no issue." - Ibrahim Zadran.

When: Sunday, 14 January 2024 at 7 pm IST

Where: Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore

What to expect: Good batting conditions with consistent bounce to play your shots. And bearable January temperatures in Central India as compared to the first match.

Thanks for the tag

Thanks for the thread and for tagging me Raji.  

So, it is a festive day and a landmark match for many players. 

That is great, good wishes to both teams.