India vs Afghanistan, AFG vs IND 2024, Today Match Prediction 11 January 2024

IND vs AFG Match Prediction & Analysis

Winning two T20I series back to back- against Australia and South Africa- is no small feat.

A young and relatively inexperienced Indian outfit managed to achieve that in a space of 30 days. But they’ve got their experience back, with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli returning to the fold. They’re going to be facing a buoyant Afghanistan, who backed up an impressive world cup performance with a solid 2-1 T20I series victory over Team UAE.

Afghanistan are no pushovers, especially in a format where they seriously fancy their chances of beating any team on any given day. With just six more months to go for the T20 world cup, both the teams will be keen on finding the right team combination and firming up their squad.

RECENT PERFORMANCE

IND

W L W W L

RSA

95/10 in 13.5 6.87

SA vs IND 2023

India won by 106 runs 14 Dec 2023

IND

201/7 in 20.0 10.05

RSA

154/5 in 13.5 11.14

SA vs IND 2023

South Africa won by 5 wickets (with 7 balls remaining) (D/L method) 12 Dec 2023

IND

180/7 in 19.3 9.23

IND

160/8 in 20.0 8

IND vs AUS

India beat Australia by 6 runs 03 Dec 2023

AUS

154/8 in 20.0 7.7

IND

174/9 in 20.0 8.7

IND vs AUS

India beat Australia by 20 runs 01 Dec 2023

AUS

154/7 in 20.0 7.7

IND

222/3 in 20.0 11.1

IND vs AUS

Australia beat India by 5 wickets 28 Nov 2023

AUS

225/5 in 20.0 11.25

AFG

W L W W W

UAE

126/9 in 20.0 6.3

UAE vs AFG 2023-24

Afghanistan beat United Arab Emirates by 4 wickets 02 Jan 2024

AFG

128/6 in 18.3 6.92

UAE

166/7 in 20.0 8.3

UAE vs AFG 2023-24

United Arab Emirates beat Afghanistan by 11 runs 31 Dec 2023

AFG

155/10 in 19.5 7.82

UAE

131/4 in 20.0 6.55

UAE vs AFG 2023-24

Afghanistan beat United Arab Emirates by 72 runs 29 Dec 2023

AFG

203/3 in 20.0 10.15

PAK

115/10 in 18.0 6.39

AGMT20I

Afghanistan beat Pakistan by 4 wickets 06 Oct 2023

AFG

116/6 in 17.5 6.5

SL

108/10 in 19.1 5.63

AGMT20I

Afghanistan beat Sri Lanka by 8 runs

04 Oct 2023

AFG

116/10 in 18.3 6.27

HEAD TO HEAD

TEAMS PREVIEW

India Preview

Team India are going to be missing mercurial T20 batsman and stand-in captain Surya Kumar Yadav, handy all-rounder Hardik Pandya, and opener Ruturaj Gaikwad for this series due to injury concerns.

Even though there are no like-for-like replacements for these players, the Indian management and selection committee have put together an impressive squad for tackling the Afghan challenge. Seasoned campaigners Rohit and Kohli are back in the squad, although Virat has made himself unavailable for selection for the first T20I for personal reasons. Sanju Samson is back in the fold as well, but might not get a look in ahead of Jitesh Sharma, who did reasonably well himself when an opportunity presented itself. The list of all-rounders is quite long too with Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, and Axar Patel available.

The freshly contrived spin attack featuring Ravi Bishnoi and Kuldeep Yadav looks all set to bamboozle the Afghan batsmen, while the fast bowling trio- Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar- are all set to trouble them early on with some swing and seam movement. India have all their bases covered and look strong as ever to win another bilateral T20I series at home. Beware Afghanistan.

India Predicted Playing XI:

Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar.

India Actual Playing XI:

Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar

Afghanistan Preview

Afghanistan are back on Indian shores with a strong T20I squad two months after an impressive display of cricket in the ODI world cup. They have a fairly young captain in Ibrahim Zadran, who has yet to find his feet and make a mark in this format.

The challenge of facing a strong Indian side in Indian conditions is always daunting, but Afghanistan have the squad to tackle that though. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Hazratullah Zazai make a solid opening pair, and Ibrahim Zadran can come in and steady the ship if one of them get knocked over cheaply. The middle order looks a bit brittle though as Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai and Karim Janat have not settled into their roles and made consistent contributions.

Bowling has always been the stronger suit of Afghanistan, and young captain Ibrahim Zadran won’t have to think too much over who to throw the ball to. Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen ul Haq were quite effective in the powerplay overs against UAE recently. With Mujeeb ur Rahman back in the mix, we may as well see him open the bowling. All rounders Karim Janat and Azmatullah Omarzai are handy medium pace options, with Qais Ahmad and Mohammad Nabi rounding up the spin attack. p>

Afghanistan Predicted Playing XI:

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Hazratullah Zazai, Ibrahim Zadran (capt), Azmaullah Omarzai, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Mujeeb Ur Rahman,Noor Ahmad/Qais Ahmad, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq.

Afghanistan Actual Playing XI:

Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Ibrahim Zadran, Karim Janat, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Naveen ul Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

PITCH AND WEATHER CONDITIONS

Weather Conditions

The pitch here has plenty to offer to pace bowlers and batters. Bowlers find pace and bounce early on, and batsmen have shown that they can produce runs with the right intent. So it should be an even contest. Chilly and foggy conditions are forecast for game day with the temperatures expected to drop down between 9 and 12 degree celcius, so bowlers might have to deal with the difficulty of gripping the wet ball.

IND vs AFG Pitch Report

The match is going to be played at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh. The home team has a solid record here, winning 3 out of the 4 T20I matches here. Their lone defeat came in their recent encounter against Australia in September 2022, when the visitors chased down a mighty total 210 to win by four wickets.

Toss: To Bowl

Toss could be key here in this venue, where teams batting second have won four times, including a humongous chase of 211 runs by Australia against India. Team India could put Afghanistan in to bat first, should they win the toss.