Big picture: Will India give their bench a go?
Afghanistan will still rely on the core that represented them in the World Cup, but should consider playing one spinner fewer and promoting Azamtullah Omarzai, who has looked like their best batter. Too often their best players come into the game when the damage has been done be it Omarzai batting at No. 6 or Rashid Khan not bowling in the powerplay. This is a great opportunity for Afghanistan to see what happens when their best players are pushed out of their comfort zones.
Afghanistan LLWWL (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
India WWWWW
In the spotlight: Ibrahim Zadran and Axar Patel
Team news: Should bench-warmers warm up?
Afghanistan have three world-class spinners, but they feel light on pace especially once they decide to not bowl Farooqi with the new ball. Even if Naveen is fit and available, they should think of playing the extra fast bowler in Abdollah Ahmadzai in place of either Mujeeb ur Rahman or Noor Ahmad.
Afghanistan (probable): 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran (capt), 3 Sediqullah Atal, 4 Gulbadin Naib, 5 Darwish Rasooli, 6 Azmatullah Omarzai, 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mujeeb Ur Rahman/ 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi/ Abdollah Omarzai
Shreyas Iyer indicated that India could make changes in the final game for players “to get used to the wicket and get some practice”. Ideally they should try the extra bowler and bat first not because they have struggled with the ball but to see how batters respond to the alternative combination of less batting depth.
India 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt.), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 8 Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Yash Thakur, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
Pitch and conditions: More of the same
The pitch should continue to be good for batting, and the small dimensions should aid the batters. There is some western disturbance taking shape around north-western India, but the risk of rain in Delhi is strictly moderate.
