Indian Batting Juggernaut faces the Afghan bowling magic

 India vs Afghanistan - Match 9 - Preview

October 11, 2023: At the capital city, 2 teams which are on the either side of the ODI ranking spectrum face off in their 2nd game of this campaign. Coming back from a below par performance, Afghanistan would love to give a scare if not upset the hosts in what could be a test of Batting excellence against mystery bowling.

We should not strike out the possibility of a Afghan Batting onslaught as we have seen in the past that guys like Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Hasmatullah Shahidi can go berserk with their hard hitting. Rashid Khan, Nabi and Mujeeb are familiar with the conditions but the lack of big match experience might hurt them in their plans.

At Kotla, it is always a good idea to put the opponent to bat first. Again under the lights, with the onset of winter bowlers might not have too much of help, but given the high scoring encounters which other teams are playing, India might be tempted to bat first and give a huge boost to their net run rate which might eventually come into play.

For Afghanistan, they have nothing to lose. They can just go and enjoy their game against familiar faces. If they spring a surprise, that will be great to the world of cricket and specially this world cup.

Rohit Sharma would want to make most of this opportunity to come back to groove and Ishan Kishan in the absence of Shubman Gill would love to cement his opening slot. The Indian bowling variety might be a bit heavy for Afghanistan but if they get the right length, they can hit big sixes.

Delhi has favoured the team batting first to win 5 out of the last 6 ODIs. However, India would fancy chasing too!

Pure Cricket take: Bat first make it a 400+ score

- Sairam, Team Pure Cricket

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Pics: Internet