India vs Afghanistan Predicted XI, World Cup 2023: Will Team India drop R Ashwin? Shubman Gill not available

Team India’s bandwagon has now moved from Chennai to the national capital Delhi for their second match in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. India made a winning start to their campaign with a six-wicket victory over Australia at the Chepauk on a spin-friendly track where a total of 400 runs were scored.

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The conditions in Delhi will be vastly different. In the first World Cup 2023 match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, a total of 754 runs were scored (the highest aggregate for a men’s ODI World Cup match) with South Africa making 428 in the first innings — the highest ever total in a World Cup game — against Sri Lanka.

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With the conditions changing so much from Chennai, where Australia were bowled out on 199 and India took 41.2 overs to complete the chase, it’s natural that Team India will also change their playing XI to match the pitch.

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What we know for sure is that Shubman Gill is out of the match due to illness and Ishan Kishan will be opening again with captain Rohit Sharma. Also, India played three spinners (Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav) in Chennai, but in Delhi, they are expected to move away from that strategy. However, do not expect a lot of changes as the hosts will look to maintain some consistency in their lineups.

Read | A look at ODIs between India and Afghanistan over the years

Ashwin’s spot is the only one that is in focus. With pitches in Delhi being flat and batting-friendly, India could look to rest the senior spinner in favour of all-rounder Shardul Thakur or pacer Mohammed Shami.

Going by the trend that India have followed this year, the team could bring in Thakur in place of Ashwin and not Shami to ensure they are not left with a long tail. Thakur can bowl a few overs of pace plus can be a handy batter in a high-scoring game.

It seems like Shami will have to sit out. Rohit had spoken about keeping his pacers fresh in the long tournament, but it’s too early for India to experiment and rest Mohammed Siraj for Shami.

India predicted playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Afghanistan predicted XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeen ur Rahman, Naveen Ul Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi