NEW DELHI (AP) — Afghanistan won the toss Wednesday and opted to bat against an India lineup high on confidence after opening its Cricket World Cup campaign with a victory over five-time champion Australia.
The tournament hosts beat Australia by six wickets in a low-scoring thriller at Chennai. Afghanistan lost its opening game to Bangladesh by six wickets in Dharamsala.
Shubman Gill is sidelined again for India because of a virus, allowing left-handed Ishan Kishan continue to open the innings with skipper Rohit Sharma.
India made one change to its lineup, with bowling allrounder Shardul Thakur replacing off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
Afghanistan retained the same lineup from Dharamsala and is determined put up a better total but will be wary of left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, who is coming off a haul of 3-28 against Australia.
Jadeja has taken seven wickets at average 10.85 against Afghanistan and his ODI record at Delhi nine wickets at 20.77.
The Arun Jaitley Stadium has proven to be the most batsmen-friendly surface in the tournament. South Africa posted a World Cup record total of 428-5 on Saturday and Sri Lanka replied with 326 runs – a total of 754 runs in 94.5 overs.
The pitch is again expected to favor the batters.
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Lineups:
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Lokesh Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi
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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
