<
>
Player of the Match
Player of the Match

India clinging to the slimmest hope to survive at T20 World Cup

play
Jayawardene: Role clarity and team construction lacking in Indian team (10:52)

He says India need a steady, stable and settled set-up in T20Is (10:52)

Big picture

India are teetering on the brink of this T20 World Cup, depending on other teams to hand them a lifeline, and as dire as that may be, they'll need to keep telling themselves that it is not over.

A couple of bad tosses resulted in them getting the worst of the conditions. Their batters panicked because they knew they needed an extra 20-30 runs to even make a match of it, and their bowlers were handicapped by the dew that always comes in during the evenings in the UAE and flips the script. It wouldn't have been fun watching Pakistan and New Zealand score their runs so easily when they kept struggling so badly.

Still there is hope. India must beat Afghanistan - preferably by a big margin - and then hope Afghanistan can in turn beat New Zealand, which is very much possible given the way their bowlers have performed at this World Cup. Rashid Khan continues to dominate this format and Mujeeb Ur Rahman - assuming he's recovered from injury - functions at almost the same level. So it is game on.

Form guide

Last five matches, most recent first
India: LLLLW
Afghanistan: WLWWW

In the spotlight

Virat Kohli has already announced that he will relinquish the India captaincy in the shortest format. He will not go quietly into the night though. He set in motion India's last loss, going for a big hit when he probably should have tried to bat out the 20 overs. It's unlikely that a batter of his quality, and more so his hunger, will make a mistake like that again.

Hamid Hassan ended a five-year hiatus from T20I cricket when he took the field in Afghanistan's last match. In that time he's dabbled in coaching and in commentary but somehow nothing suits him quite as much as being out there in the thick of all the action. He's still got the headband. He's still got the yorkers. He's still a threat.

Team news

India's experiment with Rohit Sharma down the order may come to an end, which may mean that KL Rahul slips down to No. 4. Suryakumar Yadav missed the last game with back issues and it is unclear if he has recovered from them.

India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Ishan Kishan, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 KL Rahul, 5 Rishabh Pant, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

With Asghar Afghan's retirement, Afghanistan will be looking to either Hashmatullah Shahidi or Usman Ghani to step up and fill the hole he's left behind.

Afghanistan (probable): 1 Hazratullah Zazai, 2 Mohammad Shahzad (wk), 3 Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi/Usman Ghani, 5 Mohammad Nabi, 6 Najibullah Zadran, 7 Gulbadin Naib, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Karim Janat/Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Hamid Hassan

Pitch and conditions

Teams chasing have won six of the eight matches played in Abu Dhabi at this T20 World Cup. The forecast is for clear skies on Wednesday with a temperature in the low 30s degree celsius.

Stats and trivia

  • In 2021, fast bowlers (76 matches, 308 wickets, 8 economy rate) have performed better than spinners (76 matches, 128 wickets, 7.6 economy rate) at this venue.

  • Rashid Khan dominates KL Rahul in T20 cricket: 18 runs, 30 balls, three dismissals

  • Ishan Kishan, on the other hand, has a much better record against the Afghanistan legspinner: 64 runs, 51 balls, no dismissals

Afghanistan 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st13Mohammad ShahzadHazratullah Zazai
2nd0Hazratullah ZazaiRahmanullah Gurbaz
3rd35Gulbadin NaibRahmanullah Gurbaz
4th11Gulbadin NaibNajibullah Zadran
5th10Mohammad NabiNajibullah Zadran
6th57Mohammad NabiKarim Janat
7th1Rashid KhanKarim Janat
8th17Sharafuddin AshrafKarim Janat

ICC Men's T20 World Cup

First Round Group A
TeamMWLPTNRR
SL33063.754
NAM3214-0.523
IRE3122-0.853
NED3030-2.46
First Round Group B
TeamMWLPTNRR
SCOT33060.775
BAN32141.733
OMA3122-0.025
PNG3030-2.655
Group 1
TeamMWLPTNRR
ENG54182.464
AUS54181.216
SA54180.739
SL5234-0.269
WI5142-1.641
BAN5050-2.383
Group 2
TeamMWLPTNRR
PAK550101.583
NZ54181.162
IND53261.747
AFG52341.053
NAM5142-1.89
SCOT5050-3.543