Asia Cup 2022, IND vs AFG: KL Rahul leads as Rohit Sharma rests; India asked to bat

India is meeting Afghanistan in its final Super 4 clash of the 2022 Asia Cup in Dubai on Thursday. While the Indians have been asked to bat first by the Afghans, KL Rahul is leading the side, with Rohit Sharma resting, along with Hardik Pandya.

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It will be a test of nerves, bench strength, skills and talent as India and Afghanistan face off in their final Super 4 tie of the Asia Cup 2022 at the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday. Both sides are out of contention for the Final, as this game happens to be a dead rubber. Nonetheless, both are aiming to finish on a high with a win. As for the toss, Afghanistan has won it and has invited India to bat first, while the latter has lost all three tosses in the Super 4. Meanwhile, the Indians have made three changes to the side, prominently skipper-cum-opener Rohit Sharma and all-rounder Hardik Pandya resting, with vice-captain KL Rahul leading.

After winning the toss, Afghan skipper Mohammad Nabi said, "We will bowl first. We left the stadium immediately and went to the hotel last night. I had some green tea and took a few sleeping pills. It was a tough night. We played well in the tournament. We could have won the last two games. We will try our best to play some good cricket."

In contrast, stand-in Indian captain Rahul declared, "We wanted to bat first. We want to challenge ourselves as a batting unit. Rohit wants to take a break. Playing back-to-back is not easy in these conditions. Yuzi [Yuzvendra Chahal], Rohit and Hardik miss out. [Deepak] Chahar, [Dinesh] Karthik and Axar [Patel] come in."

Image credit: PTI

"Even coming into this tournament, we had the T20 World Cup in mind. It's good learning to play in such a tournament before the World Cup. We have learnt a few things from the losses. Trying to finalise each individual's roles in the World Cup," concluded Rahul.

Playing XI
IND: KL Rahul(c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh.
AFG: Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi(c), Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmad Malik and Fazalhaq Farooqi.