Bridgetown: A sudden spell of rain on Monday night eased the humidity after a hard day's work. The rain continued on Tuesday morning as well, but the Indian contingent and the team were hoping it would be a one-off. Rain on match day is the last thing they want Afghanistan In Super-8.
Especially after seeing the Afghans in their final league match in St Lucia on Monday, after which they will take on the mighty Indians in Barbados. Rohit Sharma They would absolutely not want the game to be shortened, because in a 20-over contest on a good pitch – as was the case in St Lucia and will be at Kensington Oval – India are way ahead of the Afghans.
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Moreover, Monday's play gave an important indication of how India should approach their task on Thursday. West Indies top-order batsmen Johnson Charles and Nicholas Pooran launched a brutal assault on Afghan pacers Fazalhaq Farooqi and Azmatullah Umarzai, leaking 92 runs in the first six overs to almost seal the game for the Afghans. But in the next 14 overs, when the spinners started to come into play, bowlers like Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmed managed to hold on to the West Indies, although Rashid did manage to concede 28 runs in the last over thanks to Pooran.
India will definitely take learnings from this game and will look to inflict maximum damage on the top before Afghanistan's spinners come into play. Given that it is a day game and there will be no dew, it won't be a bad idea to bat first and take the game away from Afghanistan, as long as there isn't too much humidity on the match day.
Virat KohliDuring the practice sessions, Rohit Sharma is trying his best to play in his aggressive style. For Rohit Sharma in T20, it is always top level cricket and the duo will try to increase the pace right from the start. And India's number 3 player for the tournament Rishabh Pantare also in good form and the team would like at least two out of three players to take responsibility so that the Afghan team does not face any problem.
There is little time for Afghanistan to recover from a crushing 104-run defeat, especially when they are facing a team they have never beaten. Coach Jonathan Trott tried to learn from the defeat.
“We've looked at the areas we need to work on… if we don't start an over well, we need to be able to get out of it without too much loss. Today we bowled two overs that went for 60 runs and that completely changed the course of the game and took a lot of pressure off the next 18 overs,” Trott said.
But Afghanistan certainly lack the depth in their fast bowling attack to seriously challenge India. This is one area where India — with Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj and Hardik Pandya — is so much better that it may be a far cry for the Afghan Warriors.
Or at least that is what all the Indian fans who have come to Barbados from different parts of the US and Canada, along with millions of other Indian fans, believe. We will all find out in a few days!