Sports Desk. The Indian team is fully prepared to host Afghanistan for a three-match T20 International series. The first match of the series between the two teams (IND vs AFG 1st T20I) will be played on Thursday, January 11 in Mohali (IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali). Before this match, the visiting team has suffered a huge blow. Afghanistan’s star spinner Rashid Khan is out of the series due to injury. Rashid is suffering from a back injury. Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) had made Ibrahim Zadran the captain of the team for the tour of India.
Let us tell you that Rashid, one of the world’s most brilliant bowlers in the shorter format of cricket, T20, not playing for Afghanistan is a big blow for the team. The absence of a spinner like him playing on Indian pitches can create problems for Afghanistan. The second match of the series will be played on 14 January in Indore (Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore) while the final match will be played on 17 January in Bengaluru (M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru). All three T20 International matches to be played between India and Afghanistan will start at 7 pm.
It is noteworthy that for the series, Rohit Sharma as Indian captain and star batsman Virat Kohli has returned to the T20 format after 14 months. The Afghanistan team, which looks weak on paper, would like to leave no stone unturned to surprise the host with its power packed performance. However, the absence of leg spinner Rashid is a big blow for them. Rashid started his T20 international career in 2015 against Zimbabwe (AFG vs ZIM). Till now he has taken 130 wickets in 82 matches at an average of 14.80. There is a record in his name of taking five wicket haul twice and four wicket haul four times. Apart from this, while batting in the lower order, he has also scored 370 runs in 46 T20 innings with a strike rate of 129.37.
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