World Cup: India eye chance of adding another win to kitty against Afghanistan

India would want for the troika of captain Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas lyer to get runs with the bat

- HARPAL SINGH BEDI

Odds are heavily staked in favour of hosts India when they take on Afghanistan in their second ICC World Cup match in the Arun Jaitley Stadum at Ferozeshah Kotla here on Wednesday.

However, the Indians should not become complacent, keeping in mind the old cliche that "it is not over till it is over" because Afghanistan are coming to this match with nothing-to-lose but-everything-to-gain attitude.

Though the Men in Blue have never lost to Afghanistan, the last and only time the two teams faced each other in the 2019 World Cup, Afghanistan gave them a massive scare, coming very close to ending India’s unbeaten streak before going down by only 11 runs.

This time the two teams are facing each other after winning and losing their openers, India after some initial hiccups overwhelmed formidable Australia while Afghanistan opened their campaign with a defeat at the hands of Bangladesh. In fact, Afghanistan have lost six One-Day International matches in a row now and to avoid the seventh successive loss against top-ranked India makes it an even more daunting task.