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Samson, Kuldeep ‘Dropped’, Jaiswal Injured; Rohit Sharma & Co. To Bowl First In 1st T20I Vs AFG

image-lr985u0hRohit Sharma during the toss (X.com)

After a grueling 14 months, Rohit Sharma made his T20I captaincy return for India on a day when a plethora of changes left everyone perplexed. In the first T20I of the three-match series against Afghanistan, Rohit, after winning the toss and opted to bowl, confirmed they won’t have Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, and Kuldeep Yadav in the playing XI.

As confirmed earlier by head coach Rahul Dravid, India will be without Virat Kohli in the T20I series opener against Afghanistan, potentially due to his daughter Vamika’s birthday celebration. Dravid also stated that Jaiswal would open with Rohit, but after Shubman Gill got chance ahead of him, it did not seem to be the case.

Meanwhile, BCCI later confirmed that Jaiswal was not available for selection ‘due to a sore right groin.’


IND vs AFG 1st T20I: Playing XIs:

India XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar

Afghanistan XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran (c), Rahmat Shah, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Rohit Sharma

“We will bowl first. There is no particular reason; the pitch is good, and it doesn't change a lot here. A lot to gain from the 3 games, we haven't had too much T20 cricket leading to the World Cup, and there's IPL, but this is an international game and we'll try to achieve a few things. I had a chat with Rahul bhai regarding the combination going forward and what we need to do as a group. That's what we'll try to do, but winning is the most important thing. Sanju Samson, Avesh, Yashashvi (who didn't pull off well) and Kuldeep miss out.”

Ibrahim Zadran

"We wanted to bowl first as well, but it's not a big problem, we'll try and execute our plans. This is a massive opportunity to get experience ahead of the T20 World Cup. We'll try and play some positive cricket. Noor Ahamad, Sharafuddin, and Saleem Saifi aren't playing, forgot the rest of the guys."