Shardul Thakur at a training session in New Delhi. (Source: X)
Group India might follow a ‘horses for courses’ policy for the various conditions they deal with at the different locations in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. India are preparing to handle Afghanistan in their 2nd match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The track at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai for their World Cup opener versus Australia was significantly various from the one in Delhi. As an outcome, Team India chose to share 3 spinners in the match with off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin ending up as the 3rd one to partner Kuldeep Yadav and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
The pitch at the Arun Jaitley Stadium had some yard covering and supplied some support to the speed bowlers in a high-scoring encounter in between South Africa and Sri Lanka recently. Taking a look at the conditions, Rohit Sharma and the Indian think tank might decide to generate pace-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur into the playing 11 for this match to change Ashwin.
Shardul’s return will provide more alternatives to select ahead of Team India’s smash hit clash versus arch-rivals Pakistan in their next match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday. Apart from this modification, the remainder of the group is most likely to stay the exact same.
Opener Shubman Gill is yet to recuperate from dengue fever and has actually remained back in Chennai hotel after being hospitalized for a day. “He is recuperating well. He was hospitalized, yes, however that was more as a preventative measure. He is back in the hotel; he is recuperating well. Being kept an eye on by the medical group and whatever upgrade we get, we are hoping that he will recuperate quite quickly. He is looking excellent really,” Team India batting coach Vikram Rathour exposed on Tuesday.
With Gill out of action, Ishan Kishan is most likely to continue to open the batting with skipper Rohit Sharma in spite of scoring a golden duck versus Australia in the very first match. Previous India captain Virat Kohli will keep his number 3 position ahead of a succulent clash versus Afghanistan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, are most likely to share the exact same group which lost to Bangladesh in their opening match in Dharamsala recently.
__ Snippets from #TeamIndia’s optional Training session ahead of their video game versus Afghanistan tomorrow in Delhi ____ #CWC 23|#INDvAFG pic.twitter.com/oCM5nWmTFm
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 10, 2023
India vs Afghanistan ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 match No. 9 Predicted Playing 11
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer/Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin/Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi