India men's cricket team will clash against Afghanistan in the final for the historic Gold in the Asian Games 2023. Ruturaj Gaikwad-led India thrashed neighbours Bangladesh in the first semifinal to confirm their maiden medal in the Asiad while Afghanistan shocked higher-ranked Pakistan to enter the final on Friday, September 6.
Playing for the first time in Asiad, the Indian men's cricket team beat Nepal by 23 runs in the quarterfinal after a sensational hundred from the youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal. They repeated a similarly dominant performance against Bangladesh while bowling first.
Indian spinners were impressive with Sai Kishore and Washington Sundar taking five wickets combined to restrict Bangladesh to just 96 runs. India lost in-form Yashasvi on a duck but skipper Gaikwad and left-handed batter Tilak Verma pulled off impressive unbeaten knocks to help India chase the target in 56 balls. Tilak scored 55* off 26 balls with the help of two fours and six sixes while Gaikwad remained unbeaten on 40 runs to boost India to the final.
On the other hand, Afghanistan stunned favorites Pakistan by six wickets in the second semifinal to ensure a medal. Afghanistan's contingent has secured four Bronze medals in Asiad 2023 and this will be a historic Silver or Gold for the nation. India have won all of their four T20I encounters against Afghanistan and are favourites to clinch Gold on Saturday.
India Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Mukesh Kumar, Prabhsimran Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Deep
Afghanistan squad: Sediqullah Atal, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Noor Ali Zadran, Shahidullah Kamal, Gulbadin Naib (c), Sharafuddin Ashraf, Afsar Zazai, Karim Janat, Qais Ahmad, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Zahir Khan, Sayed Shirzad, Nijat Masood, Zubaid Akbari, Wafiullah Tarakhil
