Confident India aims to maintain perfect start when it takes on Afghanistan at the Cricket World Cup
NEW DELHI (AP) — Beating five-time champion Australia in its opening match has given India extra confidence for the rest of the group stage at the Cricket World Cup.
The tournament hosts take on Afghanistan on Wednesday in the second of their nine group games, preparing to be the most-traveled team in the six-week tournament.
The 48,000-seater Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi will be the second of nine match venues for India, with Hyderabad the only host city Rohit Sharma’s squad won’t be playing at during the tournament.
India beat Australia by six wickets on Sunday in a thrilling, low-scoring game at Chennai, with spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav combining for five wickets to bowl out the Aussies for 199. India struggled initially and was three wickets down for two runs within 12 deliveries before Lokesh Rahul and Virat Kohli joined forces to guide the hosts to victory.
“It feels very good when you defeat big teams, and your confidence definitely goes up,” Jadeja said. “I won’t say it will be easy in front of the other teams because every team is good. But if you win in front of the big teams, you have a different level of confidence.”
That makes India a hot favorite against No. 9-ranked Afghanistan.
While the Chennai pitch had plenty to offer the spinners, the Delhi wicket is expected to be harder and offer less turn. And the shorter boundaries should prove advantageous for batters. South Africa belted a World Cup record total of 428-5 in the first game there on the weekend and Sri Lanka replied with 326.
The conditions could force a change for India, with allrounder Shardul Thakur and pace bowler Mohammed Shami contenders to replace veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Thakur makes a firmer case for his batting ability, while his medium-pace variations on a harder surface could prove a handful for the Afghan batters as well.
Changes, if any, will be minimal for the home team. India still has concerns over the health of opener Shubman Gill, who is struggling with a virus.
Instead of traveling with the team to Delhi, Gill stayed in Chennai for treatment. The opening batter, who has scored 1,230 runs in 20 ODIs this year, is also expected to miss India's high-profile match against archrival Pakistan on Oct. 14.
Gill’s continued absence is likely to mean Ishan Kishan gets an extended run opening the innings. He failed in Chennai, chasing after a wide delivery from Mitchell Starc, and the general expectation would be of more patience from the stand-in opener.
“Ishan Kishan has played as an opener in the past. He understands what is needed from this moment," India batting coach Vikram Rathour said. "We knew he can bat both at the top and in the middle – that was the reason he was picked. We are just hoping he comes good tomorrow.”
Afghanistan has struggled to bat collectively as a unit since joining cricket's elite. Despite a good start against Bangladesh in Dharamsala last Friday, Afghanistan failed to build its innings and was bundled out for 156 runs. From 83-2, it lost eight wickets for just 73 runs in a six-wicket defeat.
Afghanistan has only managed to score 300-plus on seven occasions in 153 ODIs – a reflection of its batting depth. In the past two years, it has crossed 300 only three times in 24 ODIs.
Head-to-head, India has won two of the three ODIs, and was held to a dramatic tie by Afghanistan in the 2018 Asian Cup. All the contests have come in multi-team tournaments so far.
Afghanistan has games against the tournament hosts and defending champion England within five days, a difficult assignment under any circumstances.
“We have a good spin bowling attack (for these conditions). But only one department cannot win you games,” Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said.
“Against Bangladesh, we didn’t bat well. We still believe as a team that we can come back in the next game," he said. “We are playing the hosts so there will be crowd pressure. The stadium will be packed. We are used to it, and we will not worry about it.”
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