Team India eye series win over Afghanistan as Axar, Jitesh and Tilak look to impress

Jitesh Sharma, Axar Patel, Tilak Varma (Pic: File Pic)

A series win over Afghanistan is still not counted among the grandstand cricketing feats, but a clutch of players will be eager to achieve that here on Sunday in the second T20I as it can transform them into contenders from sidekicks.

India won the opening match of the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan. Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar and Axar Patel need to deliver performances against Afghanistan in the remaining two matches to keep themselves in selectors's right as they move ahead to find the perfect India's T20 World Cup squad.

This will be India's last T20I series before the global T20I showpiece starting in June.

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Jitesh has all the reasons to place himself among the frontrunners as the wicketkeeper batter has overtaken Ishan Kishan in the pecking order since replacing the latter in the fourth T20I against Australia at Raipur last year. The Maharashtra man has struck a couple of useful 30s down the order, but he would not have missed the need for a bigger knock to cement his claim. In the often-fickle selection landscape of Indian cricket, Jitesh, at 30, would know very well that only constant performances can help him save that frontrunner status.

Tilak Varma also offers a very similar case. The left-handed batsman made an excellent start to his T20I career against West Indies last year. But later, Tilah has only been able to score one fifty in the next 13 innings. With three 20-plus scores and one 30-plus knock dominating the rest of the outings. Those numbers are certainly not enough for the 21-year-old to land inside the larger scheme of things, and the effort to turn him into a part-time off-spinner too seemed to be having a feeble life.

It will be a point to consider whether Tilak Varma can retain his place in the playing XI as Virat Kohli will be available for the second T20I clash against Afghanistan.

After the ODI World Cup 2023 snub due to injury, Axar Patel now seems to be back in the thick of things. Patel has been included in India's squad for tests against England.

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So, the Gujarat man will be eager to weave on the pattern and contribute to a series of triumphs here. Sundar too has earned a recall but has not set the stage ablaze so far on his return. He will also eye a change in the second match. The hope in the hearts of Jitesh and Varma might just have received a fillip as the Indore pitch often gives plenty of assistance to batsmen, and they can expect a fruitful outing here.

The young Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Azmatullah Omarzai and the experienced Mohammad Nabi can tear apart a bowling unit as mercilessly as any other. Despite the absence of star spinner Rashid Khan, the Afghans have the services of Mujeeb ur Rahman, who was in good rhythm in the first match, Naveen-ul-Haq and Fazalhaq Farooqi.

If they can fire in unison, it will not be far-fetched to expect a cracker of a contest.

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.

Afghanistan: Ibrahim Zadran (captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Ikram Alikhil (WK), Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad, Naveen Ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Saleem, Qais Ahmad, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan.

(With PTI Inputs)