Here's What We Learned As Virat Kohli Anchors The India To An Easy Win Over Afghanistan In The Asian Cup 2022

This is the second biggest win for the India cricket team in the T20 format.

Afghanistan won the toss and as you may expect, bowled first. The outgoing defending champions showed their batting skills after putting up a gigantic score of 212 for the loss of two wickets, thanks to the brilliance of former skipper Kohli.

In reply, Afghanistan capitulated early and was never able to recover from it. Mohammad Nabi’s men scored only 111 runs for 8 wickets in 20 overs.

India cricket team made 4 changes to the team that lost a close match against Sri Lanka in their second game of the Super 4. Surprisingly, one of those changes was Indian captain Rohit Sharma.

As a result, KL Rahul took over the captaincy in place of the Mumbai Indians man. Sharma and Hardik Pandya made way for Dinesh Karthik and Deepak Chahar respectively.

Virat Kohli's Curse Is Finally Broken

It has been a long time coming for the Indian fans. For more than 1,000 days, Indian fans have waited for Kohli to post a mega score for their country.

Even though he has made some pretty good fifties along the way, a hundred in the Blue jersey eluded him for three years. Therefore, this hundred couldn’t have come at a better time for the former Indian captain.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman scored an incredible 122 runs from 61 balls, hitting 12 fours and 6 sixes. Even though it is too little too late for India, Kohli was able to salvage some pride for them.

It was his first hundred in the T20 format and 71st overall, which saw him go equal with Ricky Ponting. It was also his first triple figures since November 2019.

He was supported well by Rahul, who anchored the innings by scoring 62 runs off 41 balls. Virat Kohli is currently the highest scorer of this year’s Asia Cup. Indian fans would be wondering what would have been if these innings had come a little earlier.

The positive thing is that an in-form Virat Kohli will benefit India in the upcoming tournaments. Just like Sharma, he could have so easily told the staff about not playing in this game considering it had no value.

With a century under his belt, he now has the monkey off his back regarding his 71st ton. Now, he may start scoring freely again in the Blue jersey.

After all, he would rather be going into the World T20 with such a gigantic personal score rather than coming into it with question marks.

India Cricket Team’S Potential Roadmap For The World T20

India made multiple changes in their final Super 4 game against Afghanistan. Considering how they have performed, should they look for a similar kind of module in the upcoming World T20?

With the way Kohli has performed as an opener alongside Rahul, how can Sharma come back into this team? Should India start trusting Karthik a lot more like they did today? There are many questions yet to be answered.

Ever since Mahendra Singh Dhoni retired from international cricket, India has always had a reputation for playing well in bilateral series. However, they were never able to perform on that level in the ICC tournaments.

Last year, they virtually reached the lowest point in their modern history when they lost to Pakistan in the same in ICC World Cup tournaments. Therefore, they cannot go into another big tournament without knowing their best combination.

Despite winning the first two group games against Pakistan and Hong Kong, India never looked convincing in any of those games. They barely edged past Pakistan in the first game.

Even though the result against Hong Kong was never in doubt, the minnows were still able to score a decent total of 152 for 5 at the end of the 20 overs. In the Super 4, they lost against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

It has been a disappointing event for the outgoing defending champions looking at the fact that they had played so many T20 games going into it.

However, they have to put this tournament behind them and use this win as pivotal for their World T20 preparations.

Not The Best Time For Nabi And Co

What would you do after losing a close encounter as Afghanistan did yesterday against Pakistan? You would disconnect from everything and not come back to the cricket ground for a few days.

Here, we had Afghanistan preparing for a consolation match against India less than 24 hours after their heartbreaking defeat against the Greens.

So you cannot expect them to have a similar sort of enthusiasm as they had a day earlier, can you?

Afghanistan was second best in just about every department against India. With this defeat, Nabi’s men have gone three defeats in three games in the Super 4 of this year’s Asia Cup.

A Bhuvneshwar Kumar Masterclass

Even though a lot has been said about Afghanistan not turning up for the game, you cannot ignore the brilliance of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

The right-arm fast bowler was simply incredible as he showed his experience by bowling the right line and length. Kumar finished with figures of five wickets for just four runs.

The 32-year-old has come under heavy criticism from Indian experts due to his poor performances in this year’s Asia Cup. Kumar was deployed as the spearhead of the Indian bowling attack after the injury to Jasprit Bumrah.

Many people feel that he should be replaced with Mohammad Shami in the upcoming World T20. With his performance, he has truly made his mark of being a bowling contender in the upcoming World T20 for the Indian cricket team.

Once Bumrah becomes fit again, he will take over the role of being the bowling spearhead once again with Kumar supporting him from the other hand.

Afghanistan Is Yet To Prove Itself In Crunch Games

After going undefeated in the group stages, many people thought that Afghanistan had the capability of causing an upset and reaching the finals.

Despite improving their cricket structure, they are yet to be classified in the same breath as the traditional Asian super forces in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

As they haven’t lived up to their hype as yet, the question of them being the next big Asian tiger remains unanswered. They will go again in the upcoming World T20 hoping to create some headlines.

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