Victorious in the opening T20I of the 3-match series against Afghanistan, India hope to make it two wins in a row as the two teams square off at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday. One of the biggest decisions that awaits skipper Shreyas Iyer and head coach Gautam Gambhir is the selection of the opening combination. there’s still a debate over the second opener’s choice between Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi While Abhishek Sharma has sealed his place in the XI.
The teenage prodigy was snubbed by the management in favour of Samson in the series opener, but the wicket-keeper batter was dismissed for a score of just 10 runs. Though it is unlikely that a change will be made after just one game, the matter does get tricky when a player of Sooryavanshi’s calibre is sitting on the bench.
The Kerala batter was a star of India’s T20 World Cup triumph but his form has been topsy-turvy ever since, having scored 33 runs in four innings before the Afghanistan series.
However, these are minor issues for a team that is operating like a well-oiled machine, and Afghanistan will have to come up with much better plans to contain the side. The Afghans were no match for India in the opening game, lacking the batting firepower and the bowling attack to put their opponents under any kind of pressure. It is a short series and Afghanistan will need a far stronger batting effort after their top order struggled to build momentum in the opening game.
