India meet an Afghanistan side of debutants in a repeat of the final that never finished

India open their Asian Games title defence in the quarter-finals against an Afghanistan side that has almost nobody in common with the one they beat 3-0 a fortnight ago

India have not played a match in Japan yet. Seeded directly into the last eight, they meet Afghanistan at Korogi Sports Park on Monday in a repeat of a gold-medal match that was never completed.

India were one of four teams, with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, handed byes to the quarter-finals on continental T20I ranking. Afghanistan came through Group A in second, beating Japan and then losing to Nepal.

Shreyas Iyer leads a near full-strength T20 squad that includes Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Abhishek Sharma. Afghanistan's 15 contains neither Rashid Khan nor Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and six of its players have yet to appear in international cricket.

Seeded straight into the last eight

The six lowest-seeded teams played a round-robin group stage from 24 to 26 September, with the top two in each group joining the four seeds in the quarter-finals. India's ranking meant they did not have to play any of it.

India's first cricket of these Games will therefore be a knockout match, with no group fixture behind them to settle a batting order or test conditions in Aichi.

The winners go into the semi-finals on 1 October, with the bronze and gold medal matches following on 3 October.

Afghanistan arrive with a new cast

Darwish Rasooli captains a 15 picked largely on form in the Shpageeza Cricket League, Afghanistan's domestic T20 competition. Ismat Alam, named player of that tournament, is among those in line for a first cap.

Najibullah Zadran and Karim Janat are the only substantially experienced internationals in the group, which is otherwise built around players who have come through Afghanistan A.

They opened with a 48-run win over Japan, making 129 for 6 before bowling the hosts out for 81 in 19.3 overs, Arab Gul taking 4-8.

Nepal then beat them by five wickets, holding Afghanistan to 102 for 7 and chasing it down at 103 for 5 in 17.2 overs. Kushal Bhurtel's 4-21 did most of the damage.

What the Friendship Cup settled

India and Afghanistan met in a three-match T20I series at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi from 13 to 17 September, and India won all three.

Afghanistan made 156 for 8 in the first match and India answered with 157 for 3 in 13.4 overs; in the second, 159 for 8 was passed for the loss of three wickets with more than five overs unused.

The third was the heaviest. India posted 221 for 7 and bowled Afghanistan out for 94, a margin of 127 runs. Abhishek Sharma made 82 from 32 in the opener and 108 from 34 in the decider, finishing with 229 runs for the series.

That Afghanistan side was captained by Ibrahim Zadran and is not this one, which is why the 3-0 tells India less than it looks.

India's changes since the series

Harshit Rana was ruled out after sustaining a rectus femoris strain while bowling in a match simulation on 7 September. The BCCI named Yash Thakur, the Vidarbha seamer who debuted in Zimbabwe in July, as his replacement on 10 September.

Varun Chakaravarthy then went down with a side strain in the first T20I against Afghanistan and was sent to the Centre of Excellence for assessment. The leg-spinning all-rounder Vipraj Nigam replaced him in the Asian Games squad.

"Varun is out for an indefinite period of time. Vipraj Nigam and Kuldeep Yadav were the two available options from the long list. Kuldeep will play the West Indies ODIs later this month," a BCCI source told The Shillong Times.

The final that was never finished

India and Afghanistan last met at these Games in the gold-medal match at the ZJUT Cricket Field in Hangzhou on 7 October 2023.

Afghanistan were 112 for 5 after 18.2 overs when rain arrived, and India never batted. With no play possible, the gold went to India as the higher-ranked side and Afghanistan took silver, with Bangladesh third.

India and Afghanistan have never completed a match against each other at an Asian Games, and Monday's quarter-final at Korogi Sports Park is the first chance either side has had to change that.

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