With two misfortunes in the Asia Cup 2022 Super 4 phase, India, the pre-competition top choices to bring home the championship abruptly wind up near the very edge of disposal – as a matter of fact, they could be the main group to be out in the Super4 stage. Bangladesh and Hong Kong couldn’t make it past the gathering stages and India could in all likelihood be the third group who could be seen out. The double cross reigning champs lost to Sri Lanka in a nearby challenge on Tuesday, after they capitulated to their most outstanding opponent Pakistan on Sunday.
Simply put, India has to win their last Super4 game against Afghanistan, by a considerable margin and hopes the results of the other two games be in their favor.
Sri Lanka, with a win over Afghanistan, and now India, are at the top of the table with 4 points and have one foot in the final with only three more games to go before the two finalists are determined. India, with one game to play, is yet to open its account at this stage. But can India still make it to the final despite the two losses?
If Pakistan beat Afghanistan today, that’s curtains for India at the Asia Cup 2022, because a Pakistan win will ensure they finish with 4 points, even if they lose their final game against SL, and with SL already on 4 points, these two teams will be placed as the two top teams, even if India manage to beat Afghanistan by whatever margin
If Afghanistan beat Pakistan, India beat Afghanistan and Pakistan beat Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will still end up with 4 points – higher than what India can achieve.
If India loses to Afghanistan, then no other results will matter – India will be out of the Asia Cup 2022.\
What ICC says on India VS Afghanistan –
For pre-tournament favorites India, nothing has gone to plan so far in the T20 World Cup. They lost two tosses, their batting failed twice, their bowlers have taken only two wickets so far, and they find themselves second-last on the Group 2 table with no points from two games.
They can mathematically still finish in the top two of the group and make it to the semi-final. But the first step of that involves winning well against Afghanistan.
The Afghans aren’t going to make things easy, of course. They are an in-form team, with an excellent net run rate after big wins against Scotland and Namibia, and gave Pakistan some nervous moments as well. Their spin attack is world-class, and will be the main threat to an Indian batting line-up that has struggled to get going against spinners.
Afghanistan has been able to so far go against one of the trends in the World Cup: whereas most teams winning the toss have chosen to chase, and most teams chasing have won, Afghanistan has chosen to bat and backed their bowlers to defend the totals. Happily, for them, their pacers have supported the spin trio well.
They have also adopted an aggressive batting strategy – in contrast to India’s more conservative approach – and it has worked well for them so far. With the pressure on India, they may take the chance to play with further freedom.
Stars on both the Indian and Afghan sides will be wary of how dangerous the other players can be. While the teams have played T20Is only twice so far, the last of which was back in 2012, they have been familiar friends and foes at the IPL.
India Possible Playing 11
1. Rohit Sharma(C), 2.Lokesh Rahul, 3. Virat Kohli, 4. Suryakumar Yadav, 5.Hardik Pandya, 6.Rishabh Pant(WK), 7.Dinesh Karthik(WK), 8. Ravichandran Ashwin, 9. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10.Yuzvendra Chahal, 11.Arshdeep Singh
Afghanistan Possible Playing 11
1.Hazratullah Zazai, 2.Rahmanullah Gurbaz(WK), 3.Ibrahim Zadran, 4.Najibullah-Zadran, 5.Karim Janat, 6.Mohammad Nabi(C), 7.Samiullah Shinwari, 8.Rashid-Khan, 9.Naveen-ul-Haq, 10.Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, 11.Fazal Haq
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