Toss Afghanistan chose to bat v India
1:43
Can this heavy-hitter help cause some upsets in the Asia Cup?
After having given up India’s limited-overs captaincy in January 2017, MS Dhoni was given the leadership once again because India rested Rohit Sharma in the dead-rubber ODI against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup in Dubai. India were asked to bowl in Dhoni’s 200th ODI as captain, and first since October 2016.
Apart from Rohit, India also rested his opening partner Dhawan, fast bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah, and legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal ahead of the final. Rajasthan’s bowling allrounder Deepak Chahar made his ODI debut, while KL Rahul got his first match of the tournament and was listed to open along with Ambati Rayudu.
Chahar’s state-mate Khaleel Ahmed, a left-arm quick, returned to the side, after having helped India survive a scare against Hong Kong in their tournament opener. Karnataka batsman Manish Pandey and Punjab quick Siddarth Kaul also got their first games of the tournament.
Afghanistan made two changes, with Najibullah Zadran and Javed Ahmadi replacing Samiullah Shenwari and Ihsanullah.
India had already progressed to the Asia Cup final, and will play either Pakistan or Bangladesh, while Afghanistan are out of contention following back-to-back losses, albeit narrow ones, in the Super Four stage.
India 1 KL Rahul, 2 Ambati Rayudu, 3 Manish Pandey, 4 MS Dhoni (capt &wk), 5 Dinesh Karthik, 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Siddarth Kaul, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Khaleel Ahmed
Afghanistan 1 Mohammad Shahzad(wk), 2 Javed Ahmadi, 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi, 5 Asghar Afghan (capt), 6 Najibullah Zadran, 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Gulbadin Naib, 10 Aftab Alam, 11 Mujeeb Ur Rahman