India has made it into the finals, while Afghanistan have been knocked out of the tournament.
India has been undefeated in the tournament, with big wins over all the opponents so far. They have routed their arch-rivals Pakistan twice by huge margins and have a chance to rest some of their key players who have been playing some grueling cricket in the cauldron of Dubai Stadium.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, has themselves to be blamed for their ouster from the tournament, as they didn’t manage to absorb the pressure. Against Pakistan, Shoaib Malik’s experience got the better of them and against Bangladesh, Mustafizur proved too much for their batsmen.
They play a high-risk game of keeping their scoring rate moderate till the 40th over and keeping wickets in hand while hoping to go bonkers in the last 10 overs. This 1990’s approach costs them quite a few runs in the middle overs and a lack of a big hitter hurts them. Also, their use of Rashid Khan is baffling, who is kept to bowl in the last 30 overs or so.
India will have a chance to go unbeaten in the finals and Afghanistan will want to create another upset while bidding adieu to the Asia Cup 2018.
Toss:
Afghanistan have won the toss and have opted to bat
Playing XIs:
Afghanistan : Mohammad Shahzad(w), Javed Ahmadi, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan(c), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Gulbadin Naib, Aftab Alam, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
India : Lokesh Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni(w/c), Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Siddarth Kaul, Kuldeep Yadav, K Khaleel Ahmed