Men's ODI WC: Shardul Replaces Ashwin As Afghanistan Win Toss Elect, To Bat First Against India

Men's ODI WC: Shardul replaces Ashwin as Afghanistan win toss elect, to bat first against India (Image Source: IANS)

ICC Cricket World Cup: Afghanistan won the toss and opted to bat first against India in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup league match here at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.

While Afghanistan remain unchanged, India made one change in their line-up with Shardul Thakur coming in place of Ravichandran Ashwin.

After winning the toss, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said: "It looks like a good batting surface. We have a good bowling attack to restrict them. It looks like a good surface, we want to bounce back with the bat. We are enjoying, good chance to showcase our talent. We are going with the same team."

On the other hand, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma said: "We were looking to bat second. We saw the amount of dew last evening. Don't think the wicket will change much. Need to bowl well and need to come back and bat better.

"We were under pressure (against Australia) to start with, but KL and Kohli batted well, we take a lot of pride. It was a good game for us, hopefully we can repeat that and keep the momentum going forward. Ashwin misses out, Shardul Thakur comes in for him."

Playing XI:

India: Rohit Sharma(c), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi