Asia Cup 2018: Super Four- IND v AFG – India looks to test bench strength against a dangerous Afghanistan side

India has made it into the finals, while Afghanistan have been knocked out of the tournament.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have been ominous for the opposition bowlers in the Asia Cup 2018 | GettyIndia will face Afghanistan in their last match of the super four stage of the ongoing Asia Cup 2018 tournament. India has already qualified for the finals of the tournament, while Afghanistan has been knocked out due to two last over losses to Pakistan and Bangladesh.

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

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 25 Sep, 2018

    Share Via