Delhi: Shreyas Iyer, the India captain opted to bowl first after winning the toss against Afghanistan in the third and final T20I. The call was Iyer’s 10th winning toss in his past 11 T20Is.

One of the main selection calls for India was at the top of their batting order, where Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson were replaced by youngsters Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Samson returned to the playing XI after being rested for the England series and missing out on the Zimbabwe tour, while Sooryavanshi was a revelation during India’s Zimbabwe sojourn, earning Player of the Series.

However, India also added Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy to their bowling attack. They accompanied Arshdeep Singh as the other three specialist bowlers and were to be supported by Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shivam Dube who were expected to share the remaining overs.

India made two changes, keeping faith in increased batting depth – axing Washington Sundar Previously, they had played a second specialist bowler at No. 8 in Zimbabwe but this time it was the changes there that allowed more wiggle room for batting

It was the first T20I for Afghanistan since the T30 World Cup in late 2016. Ibrahim Zadran was handed the captain’s armband, with Bangladesh fielding mostly a similar combination from the World Cup. Naveen-ul-Haq was not considered fully fit.

Thus, Afghanistan went with Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Sediqullah Atal, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman clinched and Noor Ahmad and Fazalhaq Farooqi took the place.

India XI – Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube (C), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh Jasprit Bumrah & Varun Chakravarthy

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