World Cup 2023: India vs Afghanistan, Game 9 – Dafanews Match Preview

India will play their second match of the ongoing World Cup 2023 against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi. The last game played at the venue between South Africa and Sri Lanka was a run-fest of 754 runs and the same could be expected on Wednesday.

We look at the current form, head-to-head, players to look out for, and squads of both teams in our match preview.

Current form for India: W L W W W

Against Australia, India found themselves in a tricky situation at 2-3, not for the first time in their World Cup history. However, they were bailed out of jail after Virat Kohli and KL Rahul made the most of their experience to score 85 and 97* respectively in the run-chase of 200 runs.

Current form for Afghanistan: L L L L L

Afghanistan lost their sixth match in a row and they could not deliver with the bat against Bangladesh, which led to their downfall. The Hashmatullah Shahidi-led team were skittled out for only 156 runs and thus they could not put enough runs on the board.

Head to Head: Matches: 3, Won by India: 2, Won by Afghanistan: 0, Tied: 1.

Players to look out for: KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Kuldeep Yadav Ishan Kishan, and Mohammed Siraj will hold the key for Team India.

Mohammad Nabi, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Noor Ahmad, and Fazalhaq Farooqi will be the crucial players for Afghanistan.

Afghanistan squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Naveen ul Haq.

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.