The dearth of a dependable fifth bowling possibility within the injury-forced absence of Hardik Pandya appears to be the one main concern for India because it seems to be to ship one other knockout punch and seal the collection in opposition to Afghanistan within the second T20I right here on Tuesday.
World Cup winner India returned to the shortest format with a dominant present, beating Afghanistan by seven wickets in a one-sided contest on Sunday.
Shreyas Iyer’s males ticked all of the packing containers as pacer Arshdeep Singh and opening batter Abhishek Sharma produced sensational performances to arrange the win.
Whereas Arshdeep (3/19) was exact in his execution to assist India prohibit Afghanistan to 156 for eight, Abhishek got here out all weapons blazing with a 32-ball 82 to assist full the chase in 13.4 overs.
Jasprit Bumrah additionally made profitable return from damage. Nevertheless, Chakaravarthy was dominated out of the collection attributable to a facet pressure. Whereas his alternative, India may even want to deal with its fifth bowler points earlier than turning its consideration to the Asian Video games later this week.
Iyer struggled to fill the slot and his batting all-rounders — Shivam Dube and Nitish Kumar Reddy — couldn’t ship.
Dube conceded 21 runs after approaching to bowl for the primary time within the final over after Reddy had gone for 30 in his two overs. Abhishek additionally rolled his arm over for an over. And trio conceded 59 runs of their collective 4 overs.
With the specialist quarter of Arshdeep, Bumrah, Axar Patel and Chakaravarthy doing the majority of the injury, India was by no means actually examined. However Iyer would need a extra settled possibility with the Asian Video games on the horizon.
Within the batting division, Abhishek quashed doubts round his kind along with his entertaining innings, whereas in-form Ishan Kishan shrugged off a minor again damage scare sustained throughout coaching to provide a 33-ball 42, that was studded with 5 fours and a six.
Nevertheless, opener Sanju Samson (10) continued to stay on the sting and can hope to give you a considerable innings after falling early on Sunday.
The Kerala batter was a star of India’s T20 World Cup triumph however his kind has been topsy-turvy ever since, having scored 33 runs in 4 innings earlier than the Afghanistan collection.
With in-form teen Vaibhav Sooryavanshi respiratory down his neck, Samson would hope to show the tide shortly and retain his opening slot as Iyer finalises the XI for India’s Asian Video games marketing campaign in Japan.
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Nevertheless, these are minor points for a workforce that’s working like a well-oiled machine, and Afghanistan should give you significantly better plans to comprise the facet.
The Afghans had been no match for India within the opening recreation, missing the batting firepower and the bowling assault to place their opponents below any type of strain.
It’s a quick collection, and Afghanistan will want a far stronger batting effort after its prime order struggled to construct momentum within the opening recreation.
The early wickets of key batters Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Azmatullah Omarzai put Afghanistan below strain because it misplaced half its facet for 43 within the seventh over.
The partnership between Mohammad Nabi and Omarzai provided hope however will want larger contributions to degree the collection.
“We had three overs good begin, then we didn’t contribute nicely. We gave them back-to-back wickets and so they put strain on us, and we batted nicely within the center overs, however we didn’t put numerous runs on the board what we needed,” Afghan skipper Ibrahim Zadran stated.
Printed on Sep 15, 2026