India win toss, elect to field first in 1st T20I against Afghanistan

MOHALI: Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first in the first T20I of the three-match series against Afghanistan at Mohali on Thursday. This is the first-ever bilateral series between these two sides in any format. Virat Kohli will not play the match due to personal reasons, while skipper Rohit has returned to T20Is after more than a year. Star Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan is also not playing the series.

Rohit said at the toss, "We will bowl first. There is no particular reason; the pitch is good and it does not change a lot here. There is a lot to gain from the three games. We have not had too much T20 cricket leading up to the World Cup. There is the IPL, but this is an international game and we will try to achieve a few things. I had a chat with Rahul (Dravid) Bhai regarding the combination going forward and what we need to do as a group. That is what we'll try to do, but winning is the most important thing. Sanju Samson, Avesh, Yashashvi (who did not pull off well) miss out."

Afghanistan skipper Ibrahim Zadran also said, "We wanted to bowl first as well, but it is not a big problem, we will try and execute our plans. This is a massive opportunity to get experience ahead of the T20 World Cup. We will try and play some positive cricket. Noor Ahamad, Sharafuddin, Saleem Saifi are not playing, forgot the rest of the guys."

India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar

Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran (c), Rahmat Shah, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.