India have sealed their place in the final of the Asia Cup with successive wins over Bangladesh and Pakistan. Defending champions India's final match of the Super Four stage is against Afghanistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. Mohammad Shahzad (124 off 116 balls) and Mohammad Nabi (64 off 56 balls) guided Afghanistan to 252/8. Afghan captain Asghar Afghan won the toss and opted to bat. In reply, India scored 86/0 in 14 overs. Ambati Rauadu (42) and K L Rahul (40) were in the middle at the time of going to the press.
Dhoni captains for 200th time
MS Dhoni returned to lead India as Rohit Sharma was rested for the Super Four match against Afghanistan. Dhoni had stepped down as India's limited overs captain in January 2017 and handed over the reins to Virat Kohli. This is Dhoni's 200th ODI as India captain. He had last captained India in the ODI series against New Zealand. At the toss, Dhoni urged his men to keep their intensity up in the dead rubber and added it was destiny that he was leading India for the 200th time in ODIs.
Opportunity to make changes
India made several changes in final Super Four match. Rohit, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah were rested as India have already qualified for the final. They will face off against the winner of the Bangladesh vs Pakistan Super Four match. In such a scenario, Lokesh Rahul and Manish Pandey get a look-in in the middle order while medium pacers Siddharth Kaul and Deepak Chahar come in to give Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah much-needed rest before the final. Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav and Mahendra Singh Dhoni seems to be in decent form.
All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja will lead the spin department that includes the wrist spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. On the other hand, having lost both their Super Four matches so far, Afghanistan are already out of contention for the final but their performances have surely won a million hearts. .
Humiliate Pakistan
On Sunday, India made a mockery of Pakistan's below-par target of 237 with the opening duo of skipper Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan stitching together a 210-run stand to guide the Men-in-Blue to a 9-wicket win en-route the September 28 final. India had earlier defeated Bangladesh in their first Super 4 match, to remain as the only unbeaten team in the tournament so far. India will aiming to continue their dominance over Afghanistan, who have managed to give a tough fight in their narrow defeats to the likes of Pakistan and Bangladesh in their Super Four clashes.
While Pakistan managed to win a last-over thriller over the Afghans by 3 wickets, Bangladesh on Sunday pipped Afghanistan by 3 runs to set up a virtual semi-final with Pakistan on Wednesday.
