Afghanistan skipper Mohammad Nabi won the toss and elected to bowl against India at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the Asia Cup Super 4 clash on Thursday. Rohit Sharma has been rested for India’s last match of the tournament as KL Rahul was named the stan-in captain in his absence against Afghanistan.
Nabi guessed the flick of the coin and chose to bowl first as teams chasing the target in Dubai enjoyed great success in recent times.
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The Afghanistan skipper said that he had to take a few sleeping pills after defeat against Pakistan last night which ended their dream to reach the final of the multi-nation tournament.
“We will bowl first. We left the stadium immediately and went to the hotel last night. Had some green tea and took a few sleeping pills, it was a tough night. We have played well in the tournament, we could have won the last two games. We will try our best to play some good cricket,” Nabi said at the toss.
Meanwhile, Rahul said that his team wanted to bat first on Thursday as they want to challenge themselves before the crucial 2022 T20 World Cup. The stand-in skipper further announced the changes to the playing XI as India decided to give chance to players who warmed the bench in this tournament.
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“We wanted to bat first. We want to challenge ourselves as a batting unit. Rohit wants to take a break, playing back-to-back is not easy in these conditions. Yuzi (Chahal), Rohit and Hardik miss out. Chahar, Karthik and Axar come in. Even coming into this tournament, we had the T20 World Cup in mind. It’s a good learning for us to play such a tournament before the World Cup. We have learnt a few things from the losses. Trying to finalise the roles that each individual will play in the World Cup,” Rahul said at the toss.
India (Playing XI): KL Rahul(c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh
Afghanistan (Playing XI): Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi(c), Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi
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