Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and elected to bat first against India in their Cricket World Cup clash at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.

The Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi, where South Africa scored 428 runs to defeat Sri Lanka in the previous game, saw a World Cup record 754 runs scored. The Afghans are looking to their batsmen there.

Afghanistan, who have a top-notch spinner lineup that includes Rashid Khan, are coming off a Dharamsala loss to Bangladesh in which they were bowled out for 156 runs.

Shahidi said at the toss, “It looks like a good surface, we want to bounce back with the bat.” “It’s a good chance to showcase our talent.”

tournament favourites and hosts India, captained by Rohit Sharma, started their campaign in Chennai with a six-wicket victory over five-time champions Australia, and they made one change to their lineup.

Ravichandran Ashwin, a seasoned spinner, is replaced on the team by fast bowler Shardul Thakur.

If Rohit had won the toss, he claimed that his team would have nonetheless taken the pitch first because “they noticed (evening) dew while training.”

Teams

India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wkt), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi