T20 World Cup, Ind vs Afg: Expected playing 11 and winning probability
By : DC Web Desk
Update: 2024-06-20 07:55 GMT
Hyderabad: As the ICC T20 World Cup reached its second stage to the Super Eight playoffs, team India will take on Afghanistan in their first encounter at the Kensington Oval stadium in Barbados on Thursday.
The Men-in-Blue are looking confident of the victory after two good practice sessions at the venue. On the other hand, Rashid Khan-led Afghanistan are eyeing to shock the cricket giants.
Team India head coach, Rahul Dravid earlier emphasising on the conditions said that "cricket is a very condition specific game" and said that the pitch makes a huge difference in the game. Dravid also hinted at a few changes in the playing 11 of the team.
How the Pitch behaves:
The West Indies pitches are generally slow pitches, the surface at the Kingston Oval is friendlier to batting while comparing it with other grounds used in the tournament. We can expect a first innings score of more than 165 runs. The highest score put up at this ground in the on-going ICC league is 201 runs by Australia and the lowest was 109 runs by Oman.
Fast bowlers and slow bowlers can both have an advantage on the pitch but fast bowlers may pick extra wickets.
Team:
As hinted by Dravid, India might look to pick Chahal or Kuldeep in place of Siraj and might also bring Rinku Singh in place of Dube to keep the batting line-up more balanced.
Playing 11: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishab Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, Rinku Singh, Hardik Panya, Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep, Arshadeep Singh, Bumrah
Winning probability:
At the Kingston Oval 2 of the five games played were won by the team batting first and one was by the chasers. However, India will have an advantage despite the toss factor.
With a deep batting line-up from Rohit Sharma to Kuldeep Yadav and a strong bowling line-up led by Bumrah, India will have a clear advantage.
However, Afghanistan with their balanced team will not hand-over the game to the Blues but will give them a tough fight. With Captain Rashid Khan and tournament's leading wicket taker Fazalhaq Farooqi the bowling line-up of the Afghan team is strong.
With Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Zadran, Nabi, the batting line up also looks explosive. The Afghans despite shocking the black caps, have collapsed against the West Indies.
With experience and balance in the team, India most likely will register their first win in the Super Eight game.