Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bat first against Afghanistan in his side's first Super 8 clash of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup at Kensington Oval in Barbados on Thursday, June 20. Both teams made one change each as India brought in an extra spinner in form of Kuldeep Yadav while Afghanistan shored up their batting by bringing in left-handed Hazratullah Zazai.
As the Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli walked out to the middle to bat, they were seen sporting black armbands. BCCI confirmed that the players would wear the black armbands in memory of former India and Karnataka fast bowler David Johnson, who died by suicide earlier in the day.
"Team India will wear black armbands today in memory of former Indian fast bowler David Johnson, who passed away on Thursday," BCCI wrote in a statement on Twitter (now X.) Johnson, who played a couple of Test matches for India was mourned by cricketers and fans alike as he was battling depression and allegedly jumped off his balcony on the third floor. Johnson also played 39 first-class matches and 33 List-A games for Karnataka.
As for the game, India got off to a poor start with the bat, losing skipper Rohit Sharma early in the powerplay. It didn't get better as Rashid Khan removed Rishabh Pant, Virat Kohli and Shivam Dube in consecutive overs as the Indian team never got the momentum in their innings. However, they will hope that Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya can get them to a defendable score.
Playing XIs
India: Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Gulbadin Naib, Najibullah Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan(c), Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi
