Rain may yet have the final say on Monday
New Delhi: Defending champions India, led by Shreyas Iyer, go into Monday’s Asian Games quarter-final against Afghanistan in Aichi-Nagoya in high spirits, having recently swept Afghanistan 3-0 in a T20I series. India beat Afghanistan in the final at Hangzhou in 2023 to win gold, and the gap between the two sides is clear. India are also the reigning two-time T20 World Cup champions. Afghanistan, by contrast, have never beaten India in a T20I.
Afghanistan’s batters have often struggled to keep pace with the scoring rate, so if the match is played, stopping India looks extremely difficult. But rain is forecast for Monday in Nisshin, and two earlier matches at this ground have already been washed out. If the quarter-final is abandoned, India go through to the semi-finals on the strength of their higher ICC ranking. They have been here before: the 2023 final against Afghanistan was also lost to rain, and India took gold on the same basis.
Afghanistan, led by Darwish Rasooli, have sent a second-string squad. Leg-spinner Rashid Khan, the pillar of their attack, is missing, along with experienced names like Rahmanullah Gurbaz and off-spinning allrounder Mohammad Nabi. Nabi’s 20-year-old son, Hassan Eisakhil, is in the squad. It isn’t clear why Afghanistan chose an inexperienced side, though they may simply be resting their top players during a packed calendar. Their biggest hope is 24-year-old pace-bowling allrounder Asmat Alam, who scored a century down the order in a win over Zimbabwe.
India, meanwhile, are stretched across formats. Shubman Gill’s ODI side is playing a three-match home series against West Indies as preparation for next year’s ODI World Cup. Even so, the T20 squad Iyer has brought to the Asian Games is a formidable one. It has Jasprit Bumrah, arguably the world’s best and most miserly fast bowler, and explosive batters in Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Suryavanshi. Nothing in Afghanistan’s line-up suggests they can contain that group.
India did get a scare against hosts Japan, though. In their only match so far, shortened by rain to five overs a side, they scraped home by just two runs, a reminder of how uncertain cricket can be. Several players, including Bumrah and Washington Sundar, are back from injury, and that game was their first for India in two months. Sundar has otherwise been excellent in T20Is this year. The same squad will face West Indies in a five-match T20I series right after the Asian Games, starting in Lucknow.
India now have a selection puzzle. Bumrah was rested against Japan, with Arshdeep Singh and Yash Thakur playing instead, so someone has to make way for him. At the top, Abhishek and Samson have been in superb touch, so it will be interesting to see whether India rest one of them to make room for Suryavanshi.
“We can’t take any team lightly”: Shreyas Iyer
Speaking on the eve of the match, Iyer said India can’t afford to underestimate any opponent at any stage, not just Afghanistan. The Japan game showed that trouble can arrive against any side, he said, and the pitches in Japan aren’t up to a set standard, so adapting quickly will be key.
“When you play for India, you’re expected to finish on top,” he said. “That’s good pressure. When expectations are high, you want to perform.” He added that the team shouldn’t obsess over results, but should set a standard and stick to it in every match.
On the weather, Iyer said rain can’t be an excuse. “As professionals, we have to be ready to overcome whatever comes our way.” Sunday’s warm-up didn’t go well, he admitted, so the focus now is adjusting to the pitch. The weather is an issue, he said, but a secondary one. What matters is playing the game.
He called captaining and representing India at the Asian Games a matter of pride, and said the hope is that athletes across sports bring home as many gold medals as possible.
