India will take on Afghanistan for their second fixture of the ICC World Cup 2023 at the Arun Jaitley stadium in Delhi.
India will take on Afghanistan for their second fixture of the ICC World Cup 2023 at the Arun Jaitley stadium in Delhi. The men in blue are coming after thumping the Aussies after an initial scare. India won comforatbley by 6 wickets with 52 balls to spare. On the other hand, Afghanistan is coming after being outfoxed by Baangladesh to loose the match by 6 wickets. India and Afghanistan’s encounter will see many upcoming and veteran cricketers in the middle battling out for their respective sides. Let us look at the top 5 players from this encounter:
The list of players will start with the blistering Afghani wicket-keeper batsman Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Gurbaz made his ODI debut against Ireland, on 21 January 2021. He scored a memorable 127 runs thereby becoming the first Afghan player to score a century on ODI debut. Overall, he was the 16th batsman to do so. Afghanistan always had a slogging wicket-keeper batsman in their lineup when Mohammad Shahzad used to play. However, with a dip in form, Shahzad could not save his place in the lineup. Nevertheless, right now that problem for Afghanistan has been solved to a large extent with the inclusion of Gurbaz. Rahmanullah has also shown his skills in the IPL where he opens the batting for Kolkata Knight Riders. Interestingly, Gurbaz has the third-highest dismissals as a wicket-keeper behind Shahzad and Afsar Khan Zazai.
Afghanistan is one of the cricketing teams of ICC which boasts of a formidable line of spinners. This lethal spin department is mainly led by a trio of Afghani bowlers- Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi. However, Rashid has climbed the ranks with performances in international and domestic club levels. With an economy of 4.23 in ODI, Rashid is perhaps one of the most successful white ball bowlers of the modern era. His extraordinarily effective leg spin has made him one of the greatest T20 bowlers ever. In a format where there is no escape for bowlers, he boasts of an economy of only 6.16. Moreover, his growing all-round skills have paved the way for him into most international sides going around. The Arun Jaitley Stadium traditionally has assisted the spinners which might help Rashid to unleash his lethal potential.
The next on the list is Afghanistan’s medium-fast bowler Naveen ul Haq. Although the Afghani team is always known by its spin department Naveen is one of the promising names in the pace attack. Naveen made his One Day International (ODI) debut for Afghanistan against Bangladesh on 25 September 2016. Since then he has featured for Afghanistan in 8 ODIs and has an economy of 5.76. However, in a shocking statement, Naveen revealed that the ICC World Cup 2023 will be the last time he will feature in ODIs. Subsequently, he thanked the Afghanistan cricket board and stated that he wanted to prolong his career due to which he will retire from the ODI format. But he will continue to feature in the T20 format.
The next name on the list is India’s talismanic batsman, King Kohli. Over the years, Virat Kohli is regarded as one of the best batsmen in the world. Since his 2008 international debut, he has consistenly perrformed for India in all three of the game’s formats. Kohli has a plethora of records which includes 76 centuries in all formats of cricket. Moreover, when it comes to ODI’s he has a whopping 13168 runs in 282 matches. Simultaneously, Kohli has also become India’s ‘chase master’. This was evident in the last match as well against Australia in Chennai at the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. India was tottering at 2 runs for 3 wickets from where Kohli rescued the team with his 85-run innings. Thereby Kohli also broke Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI record for most runs scored in successful run-chases. With Kohli’s form, Indian batting lineup looks much more settled.
Pace department of India has seen a resurgence in recent years after the likes of Zaheer Khan and RP Singh. India’s performance in the death also has also improved over the years. The credit for both of this has to go to India’s number one pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah. Boom Boom Bumrah as he has been known by has been one of the most successful bowlers in the Indian Premier League for the Mumbai Indians. Moreover, Jasprit is well known for his unique bowling action and the ability to bowl yorkers in the death. Bumrah has consistently bowled at a speed of 140–145 km/h. Over the years, Bumrah has achieved a plethora of records such as the Most wickets taken by any fast bowler in a bilateral ODI series of five or fewer matches, second fastest Indian to 100 ODI wickets and the third Indian to get a hat trick in Tests. Bumrah’s bowling prowess was evident in the match against Australia. Now, against Afghanistan the Indian speedster will look to repeat the performance.
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