A fire broke out at the entrance of the Dubai International Cricket Stadium ahead of the India v Afghanistan Asia Cup 2022 clash on Thursday.
Though India are out of reckoning for the summit clash, a dishevelled Men in Blue would like to put their house in order against a gutsy Afghanistan team which gave Pakistan a run for their money.
The Indian team hasn't performed to its full potential in the Super 4 stage and lack of resources and poor team selection can also be blamed for back-to-back demoralising defeats against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
What ails the current Indian team is lack of flexibility in its planning and perhaps a few fingers will be pointed at head coach Rahul Dravid.
It seems that Dravid is wary of taking a few hard calls when it comes to team selections as the team does not seem to have a Plan B in its armoury.
In this backdrop, an Afghanistan team with some top quality T20 players like Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Zadran, Mohammed Nabi, Hazratullah Zazai and the exciting Rahamanullah Gurbaz can really set the cat amongst pigeons.
This is a team that can chase down a targets in the 170-odd range with its power hitters and can also restrict opposition to manageable totals with leader of the attack Rashid intimidating the opposition.
What goes against them as a team is collective inexperience of not playing the bigger cricketing nations regularly. However T20 is one format where an individual performance can decisively tilt the scales.
Afghanistan team has many such players who can upset the applecart.
