Afghanistan won the toss Wednesday and opted to bat against an India lineup high on confidence after opening its Cricket World Cup campaign with a victory over five-time champion Australia.
The tournament hosts beat Australia by six wickets in a low-scoring thriller at Chennai. Afghanistan lost its opening game to Bangladesh by six wickets in Dharamsala.
Shubman Gill is sidelined again for India because of a virus, allowing left-handed Ishan Kishan continue to open the innings with skipper Rohit Sharma.
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India made one change to its lineup, with bowling allrounder Shardul Thakur replacing off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
Afghanistan retained the same lineup from Dharamsala and is determined put up a better total but will be wary of left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, who is coming off a haul of 3-28 against Australia.
Jadeja has taken seven wickets at average 10.85 against Afghanistan and his ODI record at Delhi nine wickets at 20.77.
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The Arun Jaitley Stadium has proven to be the most batsmen-friendly surface in the tournament. South Africa posted a World Cup record total of 428-5 on Saturday and Sri Lanka replied with 326 runs – a total of 754 runs in 44.5 overs.
The pitch is again expected to favor the batters.
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Lineups:
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Lokesh Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi
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