Against Afghanistan, India look to tick top-order box

Rohit, Kishan and Iyer fell without scoring vs Australia and would dearly love to get runs under their belt at the Kotla

Pre-match press conferences are usually littered with cliches of the following variety.

"We are focusing on one game at a time." "We are not looking too far ahead." "Every game is important." For India though, it's really about driving home these banal phrases ahead of their clash against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.

Because as another cliche goes, India can't afford to take it lightly against a team that's ever improving and made it to this World Cup by finishing in the top eight of the ODI Super League rather than via the qualifiers. Their two most recent meetings are useful reminders.

In the 2019 World Cup, Afghanistan lost by just 11 runs after restricting India to 224/8. In 2018, the two teams played out a tie in the Asia Cup.

Particularly after India's victory against Australia where they hit the right notes in most facets, it is not always easy to again hit top gear given the short turnaround time. But that's the nature of the World Cup, and India will want to have two wins on the board before the intensity of the campaign gets ramped up several notches against Pakistan in Ahmedabad on Saturday.

The box they will want to primarily tick against Afghanistan is the performance of the top order. Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer fell without scoring against the Aussies in Chennai, placing the onus on Virat Kohli and KL Rahul to stitch together a solid partnership on the way to a target of 200. Which they did with aplomb.

Gill out of reckoning