India captain Rohit Sharma sat out of the dead rubber against Afghanistan on Thursday as vice-captain KL Rahul stepped out for the toss with Afghan counterpart Mohammad Nabi in Sharjah for the last Super Four clash in Sharjah.
Rahul, who was asked to bat first after losing the toss, revealed that all-rounder Hardik Pandya and Yuzvendra Chahal were also rested for the game. The players to replace in the line-up were Dinesh Karthik, Deepak Chahar and Axar Patel.
“We want to challenge ourselves as a batting unit. Rohit wants to take a break, playing back-to-back is not easy in these conditions,” said Rahul at the toss. “Yuzi (Chahal), Rohit and Hardik miss out. Chahar, Karthik and Axar come in. Even coming into this tournament, we had the T20 World Cup in mind.”
“It’s a good learning for us to play such a tournament before the World Cup. We have learnt a few things from the losses. Trying to finalise the roles that each individual will play in the World Cup.”
Rohit Sharma scored a crucial 72-run innings in the last game against Sri Lanka but couldn’t help his side from losing the game. The defeat virtually ended their chances of making it to the final as they lost an earlier Super Four match against Pakistan. India’s exit from the final run was confirmed by Pakistan on Wednesday night when they defeated Afghanistan in a thriller by a wicket.
India (Playing XI): KL Rahul(c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh
Afghanistan (Playing XI): Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi(c), Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi
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