A victory against Afghanistan for Team India in the upcoming second T20I in Indore is not yet considered a major achievement in the world of cricket, but for a group of players, it presents an opportunity to elevate their status from mere supporting roles to serious contenders. India currently holds a 1-0 lead in the series after winning the first game in Mohali by six wickets.
In this context, it becomes crucial for players like Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, and Axar Patel to deliver a performance that stands out against the Afghan team. This becomes especially significant as the quest to assemble an ideal squad for the T20 World Cup gains momentum, and these players aim to catch the attention of the selectors.
India’s talisman Virat Kohli will also mark his return to T20 cricket on Sunday after a long gap of 14 months.
Virat Kohli needs 296 runs to become only the 4th player in history to score 27,000 international runs.
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The significance of India’s performance against Afghanistan is heightened by the fact that there won’t be another T20I series before the crucial event in June.
Jitesh Sharma has solid reasons to position himself as a leading candidate, particularly as the wicketkeeper-batsman has moved ahead of Ishan Kishan in the hierarchy. This shift occurred when Jitesh replaced Ishan Kishan in the fourth T20I against Australia in Raipur last year.
Tilak Varma showed some promise at the beginning with his brilliant displays. But since then, Varma has tapered off. The next 13 innings have produced only one more fifty, against a below par Bangladesh in the Asian Games, with three 20-plus scores and one 30-plus knock dominating the rest of the outings.
Those numbers are certainly not enough for the 21-year-old to land inside the larger scheme of things. The effort to turn Tilak Varma into a part-time off-spinner also didn’t work out as expected.
The continuation of Varma’s position in the team is uncertain, especially with star batsman Virat Kohli returning for this match after sitting out the first game.
Having faced an injury that led to him missing the 50-over World Cup, Axar Patel now appears to be making a comeback. The all-rounder is actively involved in both red and white ball formats.
Squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.
Afghanistan: Ibrahim Zadran (captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Ikram Alikhil (WK), Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad, Naveen Ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Saleem, Qais Ahmad, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan.
