India start a new T20 series when they take on Afghanistan in the first three matches to come at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali, Punjab. The home team, quite naturally, will consider themselves to be the favourites to win this game, but the visiting side will not let them breathe easy.
The headlines ahead of the series have been more about the comebacks of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to the T20 side after a long time. Sharma has been stripped of his Mumbai Indians' captaincy and handed to Hardik Pandya. He will consider this an excellent opportunity to showcase his wares.
Bringing Kohli back into the side raises many questions about the team management's plans for the future. India do not have a lot of T20 matches before the World Cup, which is slated to be played later this year in the West Indies and the USA. Are they looking to play these veterans in that tournament, or are they looking to the future?
Afghanistan, for their part, are well-prepared for this series, given that they have played much of their cricket in India. It is admitted that three matches will not give them much opportunity to test their bench strength, but it is still better than not having any match practice before the World Cup. Their squad has a good balance of youth and experience, although their star player Rashid Khan has been ruled out with an injury.
Probable Playing XIs
India: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh.
Afghanistan: Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Noor Ahmad.
Key Players
Virat Kohli: Virat Kohli, who has been brought back into the India squad for this series after a long time in this format, will look to prove his detractors wrong. Kohli and skipper Rohit Sharma must play a significant role while batting. He will be asked to bat in the top order for India as he usually does.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman: Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who was asked to come back home from Australia owing to issues with his NOC, has been picked by Afghanistan in this series. Mujeeb is renowned for bowling his quick off-breaks and keeping things tight in the powerplay. Afghanistan need him to do well in this series.
Match Prediction
India are the favourites to win this game. Afghanistan have a perfect side at their disposal and will try to make sure that they throw India's works to the spanner but it will not be very easy. Afghanistan must remember that they are not facing a young Indian side here, as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are back in the reckoning. This is a fierce Indian squad.