Freezing feeling: Rashid and his teammates have needed to endure a disconcerting local weather in Mohali.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Biting chilly and chilly breeze failed to discourage the Afghanistan cricketers from choosing a prolonged web session on the PCA floor right here on Tuesday.
No doubt, the Afghans are effectively outfitted to cope with these situations again residence however discomfort was writ massive on the faces of many gamers. With single-digit temperatures prevailing for the higher a part of 24 hours and the icy winds making issues worse, their plight was comprehensible.
Once the motion moved from stretching and catching on the floor to bowling and batting in an enclosed ‘net’ space, the gamers appeared comfy. Mercifully, given the itinerary of the collection, the caravan will journey to Indore and Bangalore, cities the place the winter is much much less extreme.
Unlike India, Afghanistan has warmed up for this collection by expectedly scoring a 2-1 collection win over host United Arab Emirates. With the T20 World Cup in June being the main focus, Afghanistan is right here to benefit from this chance and pull off a shock.
Following its spectacular displaying within the latest World Cup — the gorgeous wins over England and Pakistan being the excessive factors — Afghanistan has causes to consider that it has the ammunition to do even higher within the shortest format of the sport.
A group with fearless batters on the high and a powerful variety of all-rounders, Afghanistan’s possibilities of profitable or inflicting upsets are most on this format. The enhanced self-belief and newly-gained repute in white-ball cricket ought to give Afghans hope of upstaging India that has a rusty top-order.
Remember, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli didn’t play a single T20 match in 2023. Their final look was in opposition to England within the World Cup semifinals that India misplaced by 10 wickets at Adelaide in November 2022.
Another issue that ought to assist Afghanistan’s confidence is the return of Rashid Khan following a lower-back surgical procedure in November. Since Rashid has neither performed a T20 since July 2023 and nor a recreation following the surgical procedure, it stays to be seen how he turns up.
A 7 p.m. begin right here may effectively imply the onset of dew dictating the course of the innings. In the given situations, toss may turn out to be a decisive issue.
In any case, dew-soaked outfield will make life a bit of harder for the fielding group.
On Wednesday, the Indian group could have nets beneath lights and gauge the situations.
