Dubai 7th September : India’s prospects of Asia Cup 2022 are hanging in the balance literally.Two losses in two games of Super Four stage to Pakistan and Sri Lanka means Thursday’s match against Afghanistan is a must-win game for the champions who are defending their title to stand a chance in reaching the final.One week ago, everything was going well with the Indian camp after they won the Group A in Asia Cup and cruising to the Super Four stage.Now, all that joy seems to be an event of the past.
Two tosses lost , and two defeats with an extra ball.In the last few days more questions than answers have been brought out for India with the men’s T20 World Cup in Australia in less than 45 days away.
With the exit door glaring right in their faces, India now have to beat Afghanistan by an impressive margin and pray that they can get their adversaries to prevail against Pakistan in order to have a chance to reach the final.
In their defeats against Pakistan as well as Sri Lanka, India have made mistakes that were waiting to be exposed.
The loss of the left-arm spin-all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja because of a injuries to his right knee and surgery, meant they were in the position of bringing left-handed batters in and add a spinner with control.
Rishabh Pant was added at the cost of Dinesh Karthik who is a finishing specialist as Deepak Hooda, who is primarily top-order batter with some off-spin bowling was scheduled at seven to complete the job that Jadeja normally would do.
Axar Patel, who is a like-for-like replacement for Jadeja was not given an opportunity to play.The absence of an alternative in Hooda resulted in India were left with only five bowlers with Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin taking four wickets each in 13 runs , to get on the wickets list while the pacers with the exception of an impressive final bowl by Arshdeep Singh, smashed for scores with zero scalps.
On the other side, Afghanistan had to face an unbeatable loss to Sri Lanka after successive wins to finish top of Group B.The openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Hazratullah Zazai have been impressive, as well as Najibullah Zadran and Ibrahim Zadran in the middle order.
They’d like their captain Mohammad Nabi to find some form, while leg spinner Rashid Khan and mystery spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman are likely to be crucial to their success.Fazalhaq Farooqui and Naveen-ul Haq have been awe-inspiring in helping the spinners in the fast-bowling department.
Squads
India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan
Afghanistan: Mohammad Nabi (Captain), Najibullah Zadran, Afsar Zazai, Azmatullah Omarzai, Farid Ahmad Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Hazratullah Zazai, Ibrahim Zadran, Karim Janat, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Najibullah Zadran, Naveen ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rashid Khan and Samiullah Shinwari.
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