It was another poor outing for Rohit Sharma in the IND vs AFG T20I series as he was dismissed for the second consecutive duck. Sharma was dismissed by Afghan pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi on the fifth ball of the first over as they chased 173 runs. Rohit looked to attack Farooqi from the first ball but failed completely.
Rohit Sharma advanced down the wicket to a length ball from Fazalhaq Farooqi and missed the ball which hit the top of the stump. The Afghan team is on top with the first wicket and will now want to get more wickets and defend the score.
Watch – Rohit Sharma takes a duck
Farooqi castles Rohit in the opening 😯
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Rohit Sharma was also dismissed for ducking in the first T20I match when he was involved in a horrible mix-up with Shubman Gill. Rohit played the ball towards half time and asked for a run. However, Shubman was looking at the ball and did not respond to Rohit’s call. In the end, Sharma sacrificed his wicket for Gill and ran out runs.
On the other hand, it will be a chance for Virat Kohli to anchor the Indian innings and once again be a master of India’s chase. Kohli returns to the T20I team after 14 months and played his last match in the shortest international format during the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Virat Kohli’s only hundred in the T20I format came against Afghanistan, who were in the Asia Cup 2022. This was Virat Kohli’s 71st international century, which came after a long gap of 3 years.
The Indian team showed a decent bowling performance in Indore as Afghanistan were bowled out for 172 runs. A total of 4 wickets fell in Arshdeep Singh’s last over. Gulbadin Naib was the highest run-scorer of the Afghan innings and scored 57 runs off 35 balls. Naib scored a total of 5 fours and 4 sixes during his stay at the crease.
On the other hand, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat and Mujeeb Ur Rahman made useful cameos for the Afghanistan team and helped Afghanistan reach a decent total in the first innings. However, wickets continued to fall from the other end as Arshdeep Singh was the most successful bowler of the Indian innings.
Arshdeep Singh got 3 wickets in his spell of 4 overs, while Ravi Bishnoi and Axar Patel got 2 wickets each. Shivam Dube also took a wicket.
The T20I series against Afghanistan will be India’s last bilateral T20 tournament before the 2024 T20 World Cup. India are the heavy favorites to lift the trophy this time and will also want to end their ICC title drought of the last 10 years .
India had a ruthless campaign during the 2023 ODI World Cup and had won 10 matches in a row before the final against Australia. Virat Kohli was the Player of the Tournament and also the highest run-scorer with 765 runs. Rohit Sharma also had a brilliant career with the bat and scored more than 500 runs in the competition. However, the Indian team failed to win its third ODI World Cup and lost to Australia in the final.