ODI World Cup: Afghanistan Aims for Maiden Victory in CWC 2023, India Looks to Maintain Unbeaten Streak

The Indian squad will be aiming for their second straight victory in the World Cup campaign after securing a hard-fought triumph against Australia, with Afghanistan appearing to be a significant obstacle.

Afghanistan will try to overcome the odds and claim their first World Cup 2023 victory despite the "Men in Blue" entering the match as strong favourites.

Although both teams have several great players, Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq will be the centre of attention.

There was a heated exchange between veteran batter Virat Kohli and Afghanistan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq during the Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants. Both players will now face off against one another for the first time since that encounter. In addition to this much-discussed rivalry, a few additional features will be highlighted.

As he recovers from sickness, Shubman Gill will once again miss India's World Cup match.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which has confirmed that Gill remained in Chennai under the care of the medical staff, disqualified him from Monday's match between India and Afghanistan in Delhi.

Vikram Rathour, the Indian team's batting coach, was questioned regarding the status of Gill after a news report stated that he had been taken to the hospital and then returned back to the hotel.

In the press conference prior to the game, he clarified the situation by saying, "He is healing nicely. Well, he was hospitalised, but that was more of a preventative measure. He is now back at the hotel and doing great. We therefore anticipate that he will recover quickly given that he is being watched by the medical staff and whatever update we receive. He actually has a good appearance."

India is set to have the same starting lineup from their World Cup first match against Australia in Gill's absence. The best candidate to open alongside Rohit Sharma will be Ishan Kishan. Afghanistan is experiencing their own batting-related problems, same to how India has seen some difficulties.

Afghanistan's batter were ineffective in their opening World Cup match, as they were bowled out for just 156 runs at Dharamsala.

According to the captain, the batters must rise above the stress and record a high total for the bowlers to defend.
"From the outset, I promised that as a batting team, we would play solid cricket. We have a strong spin bowling attack, but winning games depends on more than just one area. To do that, you must score runs to win the game "Shahidi declared at a press conference prior to the game.

The skill is there, the belief is there, and we will strive to go on and make it better and progress in tomorrow's game, he continued. "As a team, we have the belief that we can come back in the next game and throughout the tournament," he said.

ODI World Cup: India vs Afghanistan Squad

India WC squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.

Afghanistan WC squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Naveen ul Haq.

(Inputs from ANI)