India vs Afghanistan Predicted XI: Will R Ashwin replace Varun Chakravarthy in all-important match?

India will hope to turn things around as far as their T20 World Cup 2021 campaign is concerned when they take on Afghanistan in their third clash of the tournament which will take place at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. 

All eyes will be on India's playing XI and the batting order as well after Virat Kohli chose to drop himself and Rohit down by one place in the batting order in the game against New Zealand. Also, Ishan Kishan was brought into the side in place of Suryakumar Yadav. That changing and chopping did not work as India registered a low total of 110 runs after the end of their allotted 20 overs. 

That's some hitting, @imjadeja ! #TeamIndia #T20WorldCup #INDvAFG pic.twitter.com/Yf89bCRlB1— BCCI (@BCCI) November 3, 2021

The way India are playing at the moment, it appears as if all the players have completely gone out of form. The runs are not coming and Indian bowlers have picked up only two wickets in the two matches so far. The poor show has taken Indian fans by surprise and now the onus will be on the Indian cricketers to bounce back in style. Not to forget, merely winning against Afghanistan won't do much. Indians need to win and win big in the remaining matches and hope other results in the group fall in their favour. 

At no cost can India take Afghanistan lightly. In this game, expect Rohit to go back to top of the order, Virat at 3 and Kishan may have to make way for Surya as batting coach Vikram Rathour had mentioned in the press conference that the management is not looking to play two left-handers in the middle order. With Pant in there, Kishan seems to be the man who will have to make way for Surya.

Expect no changes in the pace bowling department as Hardik too bowled in the previous encounter, even of just a couple of overs. Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur should make the pace bowling trio. 

But we may see R Ashwin coming in place of Varun Chakravarthy who has failed to deliver so far in the competition. 

As far as Afghanistan are concerned, they will be without the services of Asghar Afghan who retired in the last match. Also, there has been no update over the injury of Mujeeb Ur Rahman who missed the last game.

Probable XI:

India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami

Afghanistan: Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Usman Ghani, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi (c), Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Karim Janat/Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Hamid Hassan, Naveen Ul Haq