Big picture: Afghanistan need to make themselves at home, on the double
Afghanistan have only a day to regroup and get back into a must-win match after being outplayed by India in the first match of the three-T20I series. They lost the one-off Test and three-ODI series against India comprehensively this year, and will be desperate for a better result when hosting India for the first time ever, albeit in India (Delhi).
Afghanistan usually excel in conditions where their spinners can come into their own. It usually means the lower-scoring games. That is difficult to do at the start of the season in Delhi as it is one of the flatter pitches in the IPL and has small boundaries.
As it was apparent in the first T20I, Afghanistan’s 156 was not nearly enough against a powerful India. Afghanistan ideally want to play in conditions where 156 is par. With that seemingly not possible, the onus is on the Afghanistan batters to be able to attack with much more efficiency than they did on Sunday.
It is not easy against a side that has Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy, who went for 42 runs between them on their comebacks from injury. Even though there is a weakness to exploit outside India’s three main bowlers, Afghanistan can’t let these two and Arshdeep Singh take 5 for 61 in a match.
While India still want their allrounders – Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shivam Dube – to bowl better, their series starter was the near-perfect game for them. They will want to repeat much of the same, but it will be interesting to see if they rotate their openers.
Afghanistan LWWLL (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
India WWWWL
In the spotlight: Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Jasprit Bumrah
It is obvious that Afghanistan need a big start from Rahmanullah Gurbaz to stay competitive. From the moment they lost Gurbaz early on Sunday, they were up against it. Of the top four specialist batters, he is the only one who has been striking at over 130 since the start of the last year.
It took Jasprit Bumrah only two balls in the first match to get the better of Gurbaz. Back from yet another injury-enforced break, Bumrah looked leaner and just as mean with the ball. Not only did he set the tone, he also bowled economically, conceding just five in the 19th over. If he is to replicate his effort in the second match, India will have gone a long way towards winning the series.
Team news: Eyes on Naveen-ul-Haq and India openers
Playing for the first time since the World Cup in February, Afghanistan were back to the first-choice XI from that World Cup. The only change was in captaincy. That tells you there isn’t much talent pushing any of the incumbents for their places. So don’t expect any major changes. The one player to keep an eye out for is Naveen-ul-Haq, who has come back from injury but wasn’t considered match-ready for the series opener.
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
In normal circumstances, there wouldn’t be any reason for India to make a change after such a comprehensive win, but there could be a thought given to rotating the openers after Sanju Samson came back to replace Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Player of the Match and Player of the Series the last time he played.
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 Shivam Dube, 8 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy
Pitch and conditions: Runs on offer
The pitch for the first T20I was a typical Delhi surface: full of runs, especially with short boundaries to protect. Expect more of the same, and pleasant temperatures in the evening with little threat of rain.
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