India can seal the T20I series in Delhi as Afghanistan chase a first win over them

India lead the three-match series 1-0 and need one more win at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, where Afghanistan are still searching for a first Twenty20 international victory over their hosts

India and Afghanistan return to the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday for the second T20I of their three-match series, with the hosts able to settle it a game early. The match is listed to start at 7.30pm IST.

India won the opener at the same ground on Sunday by seven wickets, holding Afghanistan to 156 for 8 and reaching 157 for 3 in 13.4 overs.

The teams have now met 10 times in the format. India have won nine of those matches and one produced no result, so Afghanistan arrive in Delhi without a T20I win over India to their name.

What the opener settled

Shreyas Iyer won the toss and bowled, and Afghanistan were 43 for 5 inside seven overs. Jasprit Bumrah removed Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a duck in the first over of the match.

Azmatullah Omarzai and Mohammad Nabi then put on 83 for the sixth wicket to lift the innings to a defensible total. Omarzai finished 64 not out from 44 balls and Nabi made 33 from 27.

Arshdeep Singh returned the best figures of the night with 3-19. Afghanistan managed only 41 runs in the powerplay.

The chase lasted 82 deliveries. Abhishek Sharma hit 82 from 32 balls and added 121 for the second wicket with Ishan Kishan, who made 42 from 33.

India have a bowling hole to fill

Varun Chakravarthy, who conceded 16 runs in his four overs on Sunday, has been ruled out of the rest of the series with a side strain picked up in that match.

That leaves Ravi Bishnoi as the only other specialist spinner in the 15-man squad, with Axar Patel and Washington Sundar the spin-bowling all-rounders available to Iyer.

India's four frontline bowlers sent down 16 of the 20 overs in the opener, the remaining four coming from Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Abhishek. Whether Iyer restores a fifth specialist or again splits those overs is the clearest selection question of the night.

The Sooryavanshi question at the top

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 15, was left out of the first match, with Sanju Samson preferred alongside Abhishek at the top. Samson made 10.

With a series lead to protect and a dead rubber possibly to follow, Indian previews are split on whether the team management hands the teenager a debut now or keeps the combination that won by seven wickets.

Afghanistan have already given him some thought. "He is an amazing talent," Ibrahim Zadran said of Sooryavanshi before the series, adding that his side had drawn on the experience of players who had bowled at him in the Indian Premier League.

Afghanistan's top order is the problem

Half the side was back in the pavilion by the seventh over on Sunday, Zadran himself run out for 13. The recovery by Omarzai and Nabi accounted for more than half of Afghanistan's total.

Zadran, who has taken over the T20I captaincy from Rashid Khan, had said before the series that his side knew what was coming. "So we have a very good plan for him, and we just thought about him, how to play against him," he said of Bumrah, who took 1-26 in the opener.

The captain also argued that his players were well set for the surroundings. "We have played enough cricket here in India; we all know the conditions, how to play, how to adjust ourselves," Zadran said.

A surface that has favoured the bat

Previews of the match expect another batting pitch in Delhi, where short square boundaries have historically let batters trade dot balls for boundaries.

Sunday supported that reading. India overhauled their target with 38 balls to spare, and Abhishek took 26 runs from a single Fazalhaq Farooqi over on his way to a fifty from 22 deliveries.

Afghanistan's answer may rest on their spinners, with Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad and Mujeeb Ur Rahman all available to Zadran on a pitch that should slow as the ball ages.

A win on Tuesday would give India the series with a match still to play; defeat would take it to a decider.

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