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Colombo: India will have to quickly decide on their team combination as they launch their ICC World Twenty20 campaign against Afghanistan on Wednesday, hoping to get into the groove for the tougher battles ahead.
A win will ensure a Super Eights berth for champions of the 2007 edition even before they take on England in their second and final group league match on Sunday.
In their only meeting till date, India had comfortably beaten Afghanistan by seven wickets during the last edition of World T20 in the West Indies.
While the battle of attrition will start once India take on England, a smooth start against the Afghans will certainly help the 'Men in Blue' hit a good rhythm and the team management will have an idea about the performance of their preferred combination.
The Indians are faced with the dilemma of whether to go in with five specialist bowlers or opt for the additional batsman, considering that bowling in the death overs has been a worry.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is not someone who is known to tinker with the playing XI and believes in giving his preferred players a long rope. In fact, he has indicated that he would go in with four specialist bowlers and rely on his part-timers to fill in the fifth bowler's quota.
Of late, the nature of the 22-yard strip at the R Premadasa Stadium has undergone a change and the faster bowlers have been getting a lot of help.
Therefore, if India go onto play three seamers, it will again be a toss-up between in-form Ravichandran Ashwin and comeback man Harbhajan Singh.
Both played in the two practice games. While together they gave away only 37 runs in their eight overs with the senior off-spinner taking the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara in the first warm-up game, in the match against Pakistan, Harbhajan turned out to be expensive, giving away 40 runs from four overs.
Ashwin, however, continued his fine form with figures of four for 23.
Gambhir, who retired hurt during the warm-up match against Sri Lanka after being hit by a Lasith Malinga delivery, scored just 10 against Pakistan yesterday but the opener is now fit and would be keen to regain his form.
Sehwag, who had missed the last two World T20 editions due to injury, will look to make amends in a format where he hasn't performed up to expectations during international matches.
All eyes will be on India's 'man of the moment', Kohli who has been in stupendous form in all three formats.
Kohli, who has deservingly won the ICC's 'ODI Cricketer of the Year' award, will like to showcase his wide range of strokes in the shortest format.
For the second time in their two appearances in the T20 global event, Afghanistan have drawn neighbours India at the start of the tournament.
Seamer and Afghanistan's strike bowler Hamid Hassan has been ruled out of their opening game due to injury. He missed their warm-up games as well.
Teams from
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain & wk), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Irfan Pathan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashok Dinda, L Balaji, Piyush Chawla.
Afghanistan: Nawroz Mangal (captain), Asghar Stanikzai, Dawlat Zadran, Gulbodin Naib, Hamid Hassan, Izatullah Dawlatzai, Javed Ahmadi, Karim Sadiq, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Shahzad, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nasim Baras, Samiullah Shenwari (wk), Shafiqullah, Shapoor Zadran.
Pitch and conditions
The warm-up game between Indian and Pakistan, although played on a corner strip of R Premadasa square, was low, slow and flat, a U-turn on all the talk of changing nature of pitches in Sri Lanka. But tomorrow will hope for a little more even surface.
Stats and trivia
Match facts
Wednesday September 19, 2012 (day/night)
Start time 1930 local (1400 GMT, 7pm IST)
