India vs Afghanistan 1st T20I LIVE Cricket Score: Rohit and Co aim to finalise team combinations ahead of World Cup

Preview: Team India will look to get their combinations right when they take on Afghanistan in a three-match T20I series starting in Mohali on Thursday. This series will provide India the final opportunity to impress as a unit before the 2024 T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in West Indies and United States of America in June.

Post this series, India will shift their focus to a five-match Test series against England, that will be followed by the Indian Premier League (IPL) in March. This means that the time is running out for the team management to finalise the team combinations for the World Cup.

The biggest talking point ahead of the Afghanistan series is the return of veteran duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. The duo returns to the T20I side for the first time since India’s semi-final defeat to England in the 2022 T20 World Cup Down Under, and this time around, Rohit will lead the side against Afghans.

Kohli, however, will miss the first T20I in Mohali due to personal reasons. Despite the return of the two veterans, the Men in Blue lacks balance in the side in the absence of Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, who are out with respective injuries. While Hardik has not played competitive cricket since sustaining an ankle injury during the ODI World Cup last year, Suryakumar has been diagnosed with a sports hernia and will reportedly undergo a surgery in Germany.

As far as India’s opening combination is concerned, head coach Rahul Dravid said the hosts will open with Rohit and Yashasvi Jaiswal. This could mean Shubman Gill sits out should India include Shivam Dube and Axar Patel to bolster their bowling attack. Apart from Kohli, Tilak Varma is also a candidate to take the No 3 batters’ spot.

Afghanistan, meanwhile, will miss the services of Rashid Khan for the entire series. Rashid was in the squad to face India amid undergoing a lower-back surgery following the ODI World Cup but has been ruled out of the series. “He is not totally fit. We will miss him in the series. We will struggle without Rashid but one should be ready for any kind of situation,” Afghanistan skipper Ibrahim Zadran said at the pre-match press conference.

This could mean that task could be cut out for spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who wasn’t part of the squad that played Afghanistan’s last T20I series in UAE. There will be focus on leg-spinner Qais Ahmed as well, who was in fine form in UAE having taken six wickets from three matches.

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 and Rashid Khan.