We are half way stage in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 as the two time champions India will take on the minnows of the tournament Afghanistan at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. The last time these two teams met in ODIs, India and Afghanistan played out a thrilling tie in the Asia Cup. With their Asia Cup performance a few months back, they were expected to threaten the top sides in this World Cup. But things haven’t panned out accordingly for them in this tournament so far.
Also, as they did in the Asia Cup, India are not resting their key players for this encounter.Afghanistan have already lost five matches and might look to give chances to their benched players for the rest of the matches it seems. For this game, Hazratullah Zazai might be included at Noor Ali Zadran’s expense. They might also be tempted to bring in the experienced Samiullah Shinwari. Bhuvneshwar Kumar will not play this match and Mohammed Shami is a like-for-like replacement for the pacer. KL Rahul will continue to open for the side, with Vijay Shankar batting in the middle-order.
With this, News Nation brings to you as what could be the best fantasy XI for the encounter between India and Afghanistan:
Wicket Keeper: MS Dhoni
Batsmen: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Vijay Shankar, Lokesh Rahul, Ashgar Afghan, Hashmatullah Shahidi
All-Rounder: Hardik Pandya
Bowlers: Rashid Khan, Mohammad Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
Teams:
India
Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (C), Vijay Shankar, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja.
Afghanistan
Gulbadin Naib (C), Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Ali Khil (wk), Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Samiullah Shinwari, Aftab Alam, Hamid Hassan, Noor Ali Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai.