India vs Afghanistan 1st T20I Match Preview, Team News, Head-to-Head, Possible Lineups, and Dream XI Prediction

India and Afghanistan will lock horns in the 1st T20I of the 3-match series in 2024. The first match is going to be played in Mohali, while the next two will be played in Indore and Bengaluru respectively. Rohit Sharma will be leading the Indian side while Ibrahim Zadran will be leading the Afghani side.

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India last played a T20I series against South Africa last month. The three-match series ended 1-1 as one of the matches ended in a no result due to rain. Meanwhile, Afghanistan faced the United Arab Emirates in their last T20I series and won the three-match series by a 2-1 margin.

Match Details

• Date: 11th January, 2024

• Venue: Punjab Cricket Association Stadium

• Time: 7:30 pm (IST)

• Live Streaming: JioCinema; Live Telecast: Sports18 1 and Sports18 1 HD TV channels

India vs Afghanistan 1st T20I: Head-to-Head

• Matches played: 5

• India won: 4

• South Africa won: 0

• Tied: 0

• No Result: 1

Pitch & Weather Report

The surface at Mohali is a balanced track and is expected to deliver a good amount of help to both batters as well as bowlers. Pacers are also expected to receive assistance from the surface upfront, while spinners will be in the game throughout. The average first innings score in the last five matches here has been 175 runs. The team winning the toss might look to bat here.

The temperature in Mohali is expected to be around six degrees Celsius in the evening on match day. There is no forecast for rain but the cold weather conditions in Northern India might affect the game.

Injury and Availability

Rashid Khan is officially out of this series. He is still recovering from lower back surgery. Virat Kohli is unavailable only for this match due to some personal reasons.

India vs Afghanistan 1st T20I: Possible XI

Squads: India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Virat Kohli, Tilak Verma, Rinku Singh, Shubman Gill/ Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (wk), Arshdeep Singh, Axar Patel , Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan

Afghanistan: Ibrahim Zadran (captain), Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Karim Janat, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Naveen-Ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Hazratullah Zazai

India's expected Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, SV Samson (wk), Tilak Varma, S Dubey, RK Singh, Axar Patel, KL Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar

Afghanistan's expected Playing XI: Ibrahim Zadran (C), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Najibullah Zadran, R Shah, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Noor Ahmad, Qais Ahmad

India vs Afghanistan 1st T20I: Dream XI Team Prediction