Asia Cup: Afghanistan win toss, elect to bat against India

Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat against defending champions India in the second-last game of the Super Four stage of the 2018 Asia Cup.

India, who was being led by Rohit Sharma till now, will be playing this game under their former captain MS Dhoni.

Talking after the toss, Dhoni said, "We were looking to bowl first. Quite a few changes. Both the openers are missing, Bhuvi, Bumrah and Chahal are also missing. Everybody who hadn't played in this tournament get a chance," Dhoni said.

"They are part of the 15 and are representing India. We'll have to keep the intensity up. It is important for them to adjust to the line and length they need to bowl. I was not really sure of where I am standing. I have captained 199 ODIs, so this gives me an opportunity to make it 200. It's all destiny and I always believed in that. It's not in my control, once I left captainship. Good to complete 200, but I don't think it really matters, he added."

Talking about their strategy for today, Afghan skipper Asghar Afghan said, "We will bat first. Today, the wicket might spin. We would like to put runs on the board and apply pressure. We have made two changes. Samiullah and Ihsanullah are not playing. Najibullah and Javed Ahmadi come in. We played well, but we lost two games. It's part of the game. Today we will look to play confidently."

Teams:

India (Playing XI): Lokesh Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni(w/c), Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Siddarth Kaul, Kuldeep Yadav, K Khaleel Ahmed

Afghanistan (Playing XI): Mohammad Shahzad(w), Javed Ahmadi, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan(c), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Gulbadin Naib, Aftab Alam, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

India qualified for the Asia Cup final after defeating Pakistan by nine-wickets.