Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl against Afghanistan in the second T20I in Indore on Sunday. At the toss, Rohit announced two changes as Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal returned after missing the series opener. On the other hand, Shubman Gill and Tilak Varma missed out on a place in the XI. With the series against Afghanistan being India's last assignment before the T20 World Cup in June, Rohit emphasized that the team wants to try out different things in preparation for the World Cup. As for the changes, Rohit did not reveal any details.
“We're going to bowl first. No specific reason. Just the nature of the ground, especially the small boundaries. The things we talked about in our meeting, we were able to bring it out and execute that in the first game. We asked specific roles of the boys and they have performed accordingly. Not much, they have no baggage and it's about supporting them, releasing them on the ground. We will do things with the World Cup in mind, but we know that results are also important are. Kohli and Jaiswal back for Gill and Tilak,” Rohit said at the toss.
Virat had missed the first match due to personal reasons, while Jaiswal had a groin problem, from which he seemed to have recovered.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan also made a change as Noor Ahmad replaced Rahmat Shah, who made his debut in the last match.
“We are going to try to bat well today and put runs on the board. Once again we lost the toss and I would have liked to bowl first. We talked about the first game yesterday and worked in the net session. We did not have a good start with De bat in the last match we talked and hopefully today we can give a good start. Rahmat is not playing. Noor Ahmad is playing,” explained Afghanistan captain Ibrahim Zadran.
India XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma(w), Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar
Afghanistan XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman