Click here for India v Afghanistan odds
Sunday 13 September, 14.30
TV: Sky Sports
India v Afghanistan first T20 team news
India welcome back Jasprit Bumrah, who has been confirmed in the squad after a fitness test. There is no Harshit Rana, however, who has picked up a new injury. Yash Thakur will take his place.
This should be a well-balanced XI. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar are also available and are capable of bridging that gap between batters and bowlers. Axar Patel is also an important fulcrum.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is expected to continue to open the batting alongside with Ishan Kishan taking the gloves and keeping Sanju Samson out of the team. As vice-captain, Tilak Varma is a lock.
Probable XI: Abhishek, Sooryavanshi, Ishan, Shreyas, Tilak, Reddy, Sundar, Axar, Chakravarthy, Arshdeep, Bumrah
Afghanistan should be raring to go for this one with a clutch of players nicely prepared having arrived from the Caribbean Premier League. Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rahmann impressed in the competition. Noor Ahmad, who was supposed to play for St Lucia Kings, should be well rested.
They join stellar performers in Rashid Khan, Ibrahim Zadran and Azmatullah Omarzai. Indeed, in Rashid and Mujeeb they have eight overs of quality spin available while Nabi is not too shabby. Naveen-ul-Haq and Faz Farooqi are strong new-ball options although they are unlikely to get much help from the Delhi surface.
Possible XI: Gurbaz, Ibrahim, Atal, Rasooli, Omarzai, Naib, Nabi, Rashid, Mujeeb, Naveen, Farooqi
India v Afghanistan first T20 pitch report
The Arun Jaitley Stadium can be a road. In the last 30 T20 matches the average first-innings score is 191 with an average of 18.9 sixes per game. Filter that down to the last ten, though, and the average for the former drops to 163.6. the sixes line stays pretty high, though, at 17.1
There is obviously a concern about betting runs when one side is to be perceived to be better than the other. In terms of batting power, India dwarf Afghanistan. This is not their best format and are more of a threat in ODI. India average 185.5 total match runs in their last 30, Afghanistan average 152.6. India win the sixes average 9.7 to 6.1. There is no toss bias.
India v Afghanistan first T20 match prediction
India are 1.132/15 with Afghanistan 8.615/2. That's a big gap enjoyed by India, who haven't had a convincing few months. They were horrible in defeat by England, losing 4-0. They preceded that with two reverses against Ireland. It was their worst-ever sequence.
One could be forgiven, then, for reckoning that they are too short for this one. Are Afghanistan really no better than a 12.5% chance? That is doubtful, particularly with a smattering of match winners and a wicket which will, at least, help them reduce the hitting gap. On a possible road, the Afghan batters can also hit through the line with freedom.
The option is a trade, then. But with a caveat. We would like Afghanistan to get first use on the Arun Jaitley strip. It should be flat enough - and they are stacked up top with enough reliable hitters - that a bite can be taken out of the price.
Starting at back of 8.07/1 place an order (keep in-play checked) to lay the Afghans at 4.67/2 and double your stake on the lay button. If India bat first we would expect them to be busting that 180 mark in which case Afghanistan are only going to get bigger.
Trade Afghanistan from 8.60 to
India v Afghanistan first T20 player tips
There are a couple of consistent sorts to follow for top batsman on win rates. Ishan Kishan has taken over from Abhishek Sharma as India's Mr Reliable. In the last 12 months from a very hefty study sample, Ishan wins 30% of the time, which is superior to Abhishek's 27. For Afghanistan, Ibrahim has won a massive 40% of top bats. That's from 17 games. Backing each of them until they win in this series is far from a foolish strategy.