Shivam Dun starred with 60 as India defeated Afghanistan by 6 wickets to go 1-0 up in the 3-match T20I series. India were in a fix early after they lost Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill early. Dube would then step up and form crucial partnerships with Jitesh Sharma and Tilak Varma as the team successfully chased down the target. Earlier, Mohammed Nabi top scored for Afghanistan with 42 as India restricted the visitors for 158/5.
Rohit Let Afghanistan To Bat First
Rohit Sharma had won the toss and opted to bowl first against Afghanistan for the three-match T20I series. Although he is unavailable for the first game, Virat Kohli has been involved in the squad, indicating that the duo will likely participate in the 2024 World Cup in The West Indies and the USA.
India Beat Afghanistan as Shivam Dube Shines
India beat Afghanistan by six wickets here. Shivam Dube can take a lot of confidence from this inning. Another positive for the team is these runs have been chased on the back-off runs from the middle-order batters, unlike the usual template chases the team tends to do with the top order doing the bulk of the scoring.
Cold Outing For Afghans
The Afghanistan team had arrived three days before the match. They had three net sessions, in comparison to the other one, but looked all at sea in all three departments.
The batsmen, barring veteran Mohammad Nabi, threw away their starts. The bowlers were not up to the mark either, while their fielding was shoddy. They may blame the weather as when they came out to field, the temperature had fallen to seven degrees from 12, when India were bowling. The dew factor also didn’t help as their seamers were taken for plenty.
Afghanistan will have to play out of their skins to compete against India in the next two games of the series.