Top 5 Hits & Misses of the India-Afghanistan T20 Series!

India-Afghanistan T20 Series – 2024 was the last of T20 internationals that India have played before the 2024 T20 World Cup. Though superficially, it might not seem significant from a contest point of view, but any international match experience is actually vital. And whoever still thinks of Afghanistan as newer entrants to the world of cricket, a minnows of sorts, is deeply mistaken. They fight to the teeth like no other and are very close to winning a major tournament soon.

Here we will take a quick look at few hits and misses from an Indian team’s perspective from this series.

Hits of India-Afghanistan T20 Series

1 . Rinku Singh

Maturing into a consistent performer. He can not only just hit but play the situation as well.

2 . Shivam Dube

India’s options for looking for a seaming all rounder seemed to have found some hope with the arrival of Dube. A pure power hitter and a decent bowler. Even though bowling needs improvement but at least India have an option. Increasingly the dependence on Pandya is reducing. It seems almost immaterial now whether Pandya is available or not. In any case Pandya the batsman in recent times has not been the attacking hitter Pandya which we need and Dube showed that he can do that.

3. Rohit’s coming back to form with a attacking 100.

After the disastrous first 2 games of India-Afghanistan T20 Series, Rohit scored his fifth T20I century as India smashed 36 runs off the last over. Rohit finished on 121 off 69 balls with 11 fours and eight sixes.

4. Kohli’s intent to take the game head on

Virat Kohli started his batting firing with all his guns and produced a stunning effort near the boundary line, saving 5 certain runs for Team India during the third T20I against Afghanistan.

5. India’s attacking approach even after being 4 down to not let the game drift away

Misses of India-Afghanistan T20 Series

• Bowling attack – The bowling attack desperately needs Bumrah and Shami at the least to make it any where close to a good bowling attack. India were woefully lacking in pace department in terms of performance and quality and little bit on the spin side as well even though Axar Patel did do well.
• Death bowling – One of the worst death bowling we have seen in recent times. Nothing seems to be working there neither the strategy nor the execution. Bowling at the death was not just leaking runs but giving away in a deluge.
• India have quite a few options but most likely if they play the same old expected XI, it makes little difference what options they have in the bench.
• Lower order WK batsman slot still needs to be checked completely. Though Jitesh is most suited if India are looking to play someone lower down.
• Quality of seaming all rounder bowling is a box that still needs to be checked. As long as Dube kept the right line and lengths he was good but consistency in doing that across overs is still desired.