India vs Afghanistan Asian Games Quarter-final Predictions - Abhishek to roast Afghanistan attack again

Simon Lewis

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Last updated: 1 hour ago

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Simon Lewis 1 hour ago

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India beat Afghanistan 3-0 in their recent T20I series in mid-September.
Afghanistan have lost four of their last five T20Is.
The Korogi Sports Park pitch in Nisshin has a first innings average of 138 runs.

Abhishek Sharma has scored 82, 39 & 108 in the recent series against Afghanistan (Getty Images).

India are the favourites to take the gold medal despite their tight finish against Japan in a rain-reduced warm-up match. Afghanistan’s T20I form has been poor but they will hope to take advantage of India having teams playing in the Asian Games and in a home series against the West Indies.

India’s Abhishek Sharma has scored 82, 39 & 108 in his last 4 knocks.
India’s Ishan Kishan has scores of 80, 43 & 38* in his last 5 innings.
India’s Arshdeep Singh has figures of 3/19 & 2/35 in 2 matches.
Afghanistan’s Najibullah Zadran scored 55, 55*, 64* & 30 in his last 7 whiteball matches.
Afghanistan’s Darwish Rasooli has scores of 24, 26 & 29 in his last 6 innings.
Afghanistan’s Arab Gul has taken 4/8 & 1/13 in his last 2 matches.

Head-to-Head

India have won their last five T20Is against Afghanistan. One of those wins came in the second Super Over.

India Form

India’s weakened squad had a difficult warm-up match against Japan in a rain-reduced 5-over shootout which has highlighted the challenges of adapting to unfamiliar conditions. Captain Shreyas Iyer will be looking for a more convincing performance from his players, but despite having some of their top players doing duty in a home series against the West Indies, Iyer still has plenty of quality players at his disposal.

Their powerful batting lineup remains their greatest strength. Ishan Kishan has scored 311 runs in his last 10 T20Is at a strike rate of 145, while Abhishek Sharma has contributed 269 runs at an explosive strike rate of 203. Both are important players to consider in the batting markets.

The bowling attack also offers considerable variety. Ravi Bishnoi has claimed seven wickets in his previous six matches and could prove particularly effective in Japanese conditions. Arshdeep Singh adds valuable experience and wicket-taking ability, having collected 140 wickets across 94 T20Is.

Afghanistan Form

Afghanistan need a significant improvement after suffering a five-wicket defeat against Nepal in their second match in this year’s Asian Games. Their batting lineup struggled early, losing three quick wickets before Faisal Khan and Najibullah Zadran contributed 30 runs apiece to lift them to 102/7 off their 20 overs.

The total proved insufficient as Nepal completed the chase in 17.2 overs. Faridoon Dawoodzai, Abdollah Ahmadzai and Arab Gul claimed one wicket each but Afghanistan could not maintain enough pressure to defend their modest score.

Captain Darwish Rasooli will be looking to improve his recent batting returns after scoring just 133 runs across his last 10 matches. Najibullah provides valuable experience with 1,867 runs from 109 T20Is. Arab Gul is arguably their most interesting bowling option having taken five wickets in his previous two matches at an impressive economy rate of 4.20.

Team News

Korogi Sports Park offers a balanced pitch with early bounce for seamers and nice assistance for spin later in the innings. With first-innings scores averaging just 138 runs batters may find sustained scoring challenging and are likely to bat more conservatively.

India (possible XI): Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Yash Thakur, Washington Sundar.

Afghanistan (possible XI): Mohammad Akram, Hassan Eisakhil, Karim Janat, Faisal Khan, Darwish Rasooli (c), Najibullah Zardran, Mohammad Ishaq, Abdollah Ahmadzai, Arab Gul, Nangeyalia Kharoti, Faridoon Dawoodzi.

Verdict

India v Afghanistan

India are strong favourites to take the win. Abhishek Sharma and Arshdeep Singh were in hot form in the recent series win over Afghanistan and are worth backing to perform in this match. For Afghanistan I am backing Najibullah Zadran and Arab Gul.

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