World Cup 2023: India vs Afghanistan match pitch report, eyes on Virat Kohli vs Naveen-ul-Haq

India are firm favorites as Rohit Sharma's men take on Afghanistan in their second match of the World Cup at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. A good performance by Men In Blue against Afghanistan will give them more confidence as they take on arch-rivals Pakistan later this week. On the other hand, Afghanistan, which is also filled with many talented players, will looking to defy the odds and register their first World Cup 2023 victory. Also, eyes will be on two players Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq after a heated moment between the battling and Afghan pacer at an earlier game in the Indian Premier league.

Shubman Gill will miss his second match of the tournament after being down with dengue. Gill, who was earlier hospitalised, is back in hotel under the supervision of the medical team. In Gill's absence, Rohit Sharma is likely to stick with the same playing XI that played against Australia in the World Cup campaign opener.

India had played three spinners against the tie against Australia. The spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja helped bundle out Australia for 199. To a question whether India should stick with the same combination, former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh said: "It will depend on the pitch if the match takes place on a pitch like Chennai then three spinners can play irrespective of the opposition. It could be Pakistan even when people say they play spin well or against South Africa who don't play spin well. Even against Afghanistan if pitch allows then three spinners should play if not then a world class seamer liked Mohammed Shami is sitting outside."


India will be eying a good performance from their top order batsmen after the early collapse against Australia. After a nervy start during which it was reduced to 2 for 3, India won the match against Australia, thanks to a 165-run partnership between Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. Afghanistan are also dealing with issues of their own in the batting department. In their first World Cup encounter against Bangladesh, Afghanistan batters failed to deliver as they were bowled out for just 156 runs in Dharamsala.

"I made a statement at the beginning that we will play good cricket as a batting side. We have a good spin bowling attack, but only one department can't win you games. You have to score runs for that, to win the game," Afganistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said during a pre-match press conference. "As a team, we have that belief that we can come back in the next game and throughout the tournament, so the belief is there and the talent is there and we will try to move on and make it better and improve in tomorrow's game," he added.

IND vs AFG pitch report
Though the Arun Jaitley Stadium is historically know to favour spinners, the recent World Cup match between South Africa and Sri Lanka suggests that it could a high scoring match. In their match against Sri Lanka, South Africa rewrote the record books on Saturday as they posted the highest ever World Cup total of 428 while skipper Aiden Markram hit the fastest tournament century in just 49 balls as they beat Sri Lanka by over 100 runs.

India WC 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.

Afghanistan WC 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. (ANI)