Victorious in the opening T20I of the 3-match series against Afghanistan, India hope to make it two wins in a row as the two teams square off at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday. One of the biggest decisions that awaits skipper Shreyas Iyer and head coach Gautam Gambhir is the selection of the opening combination. While Abhishek Sharma has sealed his place in the XI, there’s still a debate over the second opener’s choice between Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
The teenage prodigy was snubbed by the management in favour of Samson in the series opener, but the wicket-keeper batter was dismissed for a score of just 10 runs. Though it is unlikely that a change will be made after just one game, the matter does get tricky when a player of Sooryavanshi’s calibre is sitting on the bench.
One change that is confirmed to be made in the team is in the bowling department, with Ravi Bishnoi expected to replace the injured Varun Chakravarthy who has been ruled out of th series.
What Happened In the First T20I
In the batting department, Abhishek quashed doubts around his form with his entertaining innings, while in-form Ishan Kishan shrugged off a minor back injury scare sustained during training to produce a 33-ball 42, that was studded with five fours and a maximum.
However, Samson continued to live on the edge and will hope to come up with a substantial innings after falling early on Sunday.
The Kerala batter was a star of India’s T20 World Cup triumph but his form has been topsy-turvy ever since, having scored 33 runs in four innings before the Afghanistan series.
With in-form youngster Sooryavanshi breathing down his neck, Samson would hope to turn the tide quickly and retain his opening slot as Iyer finalises the XI for India’s Asian Games campaign in Japan.
However, these are minor issues for a team that is operating like a well-oiled machine, and Afghanistan will have to come up with much better plans to contain the side.
The Afghans were no match for India in the opening game, lacking the batting firepower and the bowling attack to put their opponents under any kind of pressure.
It is a short series and Afghanistan will need a far stronger batting effort after their top order struggled to build momentum in the opening game.
India’s likely XI for 2nd T20I vs Afghanistan: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (C), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravi Bishnoi
With PTI Inputs
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