Afghanistan will be playing their 4th game at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 against the tournament hosts India, who have previously lost their two games and will be looking to make everything out of this match to win and keep themselves alive in the tournament.
On the other side, Afghanistan won two out of the 3 games they have played and with 4 points they will be looking to spin things around the Indian team and get themselves closer to the knockouts.
Both teams were beaten by Pakistan who is currently dominating Group 2 as the table-toppers, after winning 4 out of 4 matches they have played. They went through India quite comprehensively by 10 wickets but struggled against Afghanistan's spinners and just edged above as they managed to score 24 runs in one of the last two overs to win the game by 5 wickets.
For India, the batters haven't scored enough runs as they were panicked of the shortage of the runs they faced in both games. Their bowlers faced the worst of the conditions as they were put to bowl first in the 2nd phase of the game in a place like UAE where the dew is always coming after the sunsets.
Indian batters will be looking to score runs and a lot of runs; Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant have got more eyes on them to deliver with the bat and Juspriit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami and the spinners are expected to do well with the ball in hand.
For Afghanistan, the top order batters have done well against Scotland and Namibia but they failed against Pakistan where the lower middle order clicked and made important runs for the team. Afghanistan will be looking to get a good start from its openers followed by a solid batting display from the middle-order batters. With Asghar Afghan no more available for selection in the playing XI, there is a slot left for another middle order to come and occupy the position.
Mohammad Nabi’s Men will also be banking on their spin bowling attack composed of Mohammad Nabi himself, Rashid Khan and Mujeeb UR Rehman (growing from injury). Hamid Hassan came back to the side well, backed his abilities and with a headband on, bowled some exciting yorkers in the last game against Namibia. He alongside Naveen and an extra fast bowling option of Gulbadin Naib will be looking to complete the bowling lineup of the team.
For India, it's a must-win game to keep their hopes alive and keep themselves in the race to the playoffs. India, banking on their big wins in the remaining three games as well as one of Afghanistan or Namibia to go past New Zealand and get things possible for India to get into the top two in the group.
The team news for Afghanistan is that Asghar Afghan has retired from International cricket after the last games, so the team management will be looking to add another middle-order batting option available in the squad. Left-arm spin bowling allrounder Sharafuddin Ashraf has also been added as a replacement for Asghar Afghan in the team, who could be available for selection if Mujeeb fails to recover from injury.
The condition in Abu Dhabi is that the teams batting 2nd have won 6 out of 8 games at this T20 World Cup.
