It has not been a good campaign for Virat Kohli in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 but he recreated his famous six to leave fans thrilled during the Super 8 match against Afghanistan on Thursday. During the fifth over of the Indian innings, Kohli capitalised on a short and wide delivery from Naveen-ul-Haq and slammed the ball straight down the group for a massive six. The video of the shot quickly went viral on social media with fans comparing it to his famous six off Haris Rauf during the famous win over Pakistan in the T20 World Cup 2022. On that occasion, he similarly slammed Rauf for a mammoth six straight down the ground before guiding his team to a victory with an unbeaten knock of 82 off 53 deliveries.
Virat was ultimately dismissed by Rashid Khan after scoring 24 off 24 balls.
Earlier, Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat.
Left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav replaced fast-bowler Mohammed Siraj in the Indian cricket team playing XI. India have met Afghanistan eight times in T20Is and have never lost to them in the format.
“Looks alright at this moment, looks like a good track. No grass on the pitch, I guess it will get slower. It's better than New York. We have to adapt to the conditions quickly. We have been here for a couple of days, we have played a lot of cricket. It's about understanding what we need to do in conditions like these. It's an early start. Usually starts in the evening elsewhere. We enjoy playing here,” Rohit said.
Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan said batter Hazratullah Zazai comes into the playing eleven in place of Karim Janat. Zazai came into the squad as a replacement for injured spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
“We would have liked to bat first. It's more about how you play the game in T20s. Happy with our preparations and how things have gone. We are facing good teams, need to control our emotions, and play our natural game. It does help to get used to the conditions. We have to play good cricket,” he said.
Playing XIs:
India:Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah.
Afghanistan:Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan (c), Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq and Fazalhaq Farooqi.
(With IANS inputs)