Abhishek Sharma scored 82 off 32 balls, hitting seven sixes and seven fours, as India beat Afghanistan by seven wickets with 38 balls remaining in the opening T20I on Sunday. Ishan Kishan contributed 42 off 33 balls and added 121 runs off just 53 deliveries with Sharma for the second wicket as India cruised to an easy win, finishing at 157/3 in 13.4 overs. Almost everything went India’s way in the first T20I against Afghanistan.
Sanju Samson was dismissed for 10 off eight balls. His last four T20I innings read 27, 1, 0 and 5. Afghanistan slumped to 43/5 in seven overs. Azmatullah Omarzai scored an unbeaten 64 off 44 balls, while Mohammad Nabi chipped in with 33. Omarzai scored an unbeaten half-century, his second in T20Is, and added 83 runs with Nabi to revive the innings.
The official hosts were put into bat after India’s Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bowl.
“Sanju Samson doesn’t help his own cause; he’s pretty inconsistent,” Sanjay Manjrekar said on commentary during his stint with Murali Kartik . However, there was one concern. His lean patch comes at a time when Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is waiting in the wings. Afghanistan are the designated home team for this three-match series. The duo struck six sixes between them, but Afghanistan still finished with an under-par total as Arshdeep applied the brakes with two wickets at the death.
This time as well, Sooryavanshi was included in the squad but was not picked in the playing XI on Sunday.
