India Vs Afghanistan ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 Predicted Playing 11: Shardul Thakur May Come In For Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan To Continue As Opener

Team India may opt to make one change to their playing 11 for their second ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 match against Afghanistan in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Shardul Thakur at a training session in New Delhi. (Source: X)

Team India may follow a ‘horses for courses’ policy for the different conditions they face at the various venues in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. India are getting ready to take on Afghanistan in their second match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The track at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai for their World Cup opener against Australia was vastly different from the one in Delhi. As a result, Team India opted to go in with three spinners in the match with off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin turning out as the third one to partner Kuldeep Yadav and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

The pitch at the Arun Jaitley Stadium had some grass covering and provided some assistance to the pace bowlers in a high-scoring encounter between South Africa and Sri Lanka last week. Looking at the conditions, Rohit Sharma and the Indian think tank may opt to bring in pace-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur into the playing 11 for this match to replace Ashwin.

Shardul’s return will give them more options to choose ahead of Team India’s blockbuster clash against arch-rivals Pakistan in their next match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday. Apart from this change, the rest of the team is likely to remain the same.

Opener Shubman Gill is yet to recover from dengue fever and has stayed back in Chennai hotel after being hospitalized for a day. “He is recovering well. He was hospitalized, yes, but that was more as a precaution. He is back in the hotel; he is recovering well. So, being monitored by the medical team and whatever update we get, we are hoping that he will recover pretty soon. He is looking good actually,” Team India batting coach Vikram Rathour revealed on Tuesday.

With Gill out of action, Ishan Kishan is likely to continue to open the batting with skipper Rohit Sharma in spite of scoring a golden duck against Australia in the first match. Former India captain Virat Kohli will retain his number three position ahead of a mouth-watering clash against Afghanistan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq.

Afghanistan, on the other hand, are likely to go in with the same team which lost to Bangladesh in their opening match in Dharamsala last week.

__ Snippets from #TeamIndia's optional Training session ahead of their game against Afghanistan tomorrow in Delhi ____#CWC23 | #INDvAFG pic.twitter.com/oCM5nWmTFm

— BCCI (@BCCI) October 10, 2023

India vs Afghanistan ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 match No. 9 Predicted Playing 11

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer/Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin/Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi