Image Credit- Getty
Despite Rohit Sharma’s lacklustre T20I comeback at
bat, India easily defeated Afghanistan.
Although Rashid Khan will miss the entire three-match
series for Afghanistan, they are still a formidable T20 team on their day.
Nearly all of the six IPL-contracted players in the Thursday’s playing XI also
play in T20 and T10 franchise tournaments across the globe.
Before the T20 World Cup begins in the USA and the
West Indies in June, Kohli is scheduled to make his comeback for India’s
second-to-last T20I in Indore. This will be a good test for him against Mujeeb
Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi because he hasn’t scored freely against spin in T20
cricket. Among hitters who have played at least 50 innings in the IPL in the
previous five seasons, he has the second-lowest strike rate against spin. The
question of whether Rohit can dominate T20I powerplays in the same way that he
did in ODI powerplays at the World Cup last year is also of great interest.
With the addition of Washington Sundar and Shivam
Dube, India now has six bowling options and can bat as low as number eight.
Although Dube warmed the bench in the home T20I series against Australia and
was benched for the T20I series in South Africa, he could have a good case to
be included as Hardik Pandya’s backup in India’s T20 World Cup team,
particularly if he has a successful IPL season.
Afghanistan bats lower than India; they have some
issues at the top, but Mujeeb 2.0 and Naveen-ul-Haq are carded at Nos. 9 and
10. The strategy didn’t work as they attempted to put two anchors in their top
four, Rahmat Shah, the rookie, at No. 4, and captain Ibrahim Zadran at the top.
Afghanistan’s final score of 158 for 5 was made possible by Nabi and Najibullah
Zadran’s middle-order strength. It’s unlikely that they will challenge India
until they post a larger total.