Indian skipper Rohit Sharma failed to get going in his T20I comeback. The right-handed batter got out on a duck in the IND vs AFG 1st T20I. This was Rohit Sharma’s 11th duck in T20I format making him the third batter with most ducks in the 20-over format. He already tops the chart in the Indian cricket team with KL Rahul behind him on the second spot with five ducks.
Earlier in the match, India won the toss and opted to field first. The home team bowlers kept the scoring rate in check in the first half of the Afghanistan innings, despite the openers- Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran getting to starts and adding 50 runs for the opening wicket in 8 overs. In trying to accelerate, Afghanistan lost three wickets in quick succession and were relying on 57/3 at the halfway mark.
Mohammad Nabi and Azmatullah Omarzai rebuilt with a 68-run 4th wicket partnership, with the former being aggressive. Mukesh Kumar dismissed both the set batters in the same over before Najibullah Zadran and Karim Janat hit a few good strokes to propel Afghanistan to 158/5 in 20 overs.
For India, Axar Patel and Mukesh grabbed two wickets each, while Shivam Dube took one wicket. Ravi Bishnoi and Washington Sundar were quite expensive.
