Indian Batsman Sanju Samson plays a shot during India and Afghanistan T20, at Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Express Photo | Praveen Khanna)Sanju Samson’s 22-ball 57 helped India beat Afghanistan by seven wickets with 37 balls to spare. Earlier, Nitish Kumar Reddy’s 3/24 has restricted Afghanistan to 159/8 from 20 overs after Shreyas Iyer’s India won the toss and opted to bowl first against Ibrahim Zadran-led Afghanistan in the second of the three-match T20I series at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Tuesday. India won the first game comfortably by seven wickets, chasing 157.
India vs Afghanistan 2nd T20I Match Live Streaming: Follow Here
Abhishek Sharma slammed 82 off 32 balls, and his powerplay fireworks took the game away from Afghanistan, who looked rattled by the Punjab-based batter’s aggression. In addition to him, Ishan Kishan, after his marathon innings in the Duleep Trophy final, scored 42 off 33 balls, building a partnership with Sharma.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, did not post enough runs. Whether more runs would have been enough, given how India batted, is a debate for another day, but their top order crumbled under the pressure created by Indian bowlers, with Azmatullah Omarzai and Mohammad Nabi saving face.
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Well there it is very similar to how the first T20I has played out. Afghanistan batted and could not post a par score, and then came back in the second innings, and the Indian batters blasted their bowlers. If it was Abhishek Sharma in the first game today, it is Sanju Samson. Congratulations to Team India on a series win. That's it from us folks; do join us for the final game on Thursday.
It is an interesting tactical change Zadran has made today. He has brought in Fazlhaq Farooqi to bowl his first over in the 13th. He started well; it is not such a bad ploy because the wicket is a little slow and his cutters will stick in the surface. In the last game when he bowled with the new ball, he did look a bit toothless, with the surface offering not a lot and only two fielders outside the circle.
Rashid Khan has picked up his third wicket of the evening, Shreyas Iyer. The batter tried to cut the ball hard and ended up giving a simple catch to the slip fielder. It is quite an extraordinary catch from the fielder there. Tilak Varma is the new batter who has walked in for India.
Once again, Afghanistan have been a little shell-shocked here with the way India has approached this innings. They have tried to control the openers with both the off-spinners, but it just did not work out. Well, Afghanistan is not the first team to experience this sort of assault earlier in the year when New Zealand were here; they too had a similar treatment.
Well, Rashid Khan has delivered a double-wicket over here for Afghanistan. First, it was Abhishek Sharma who got the ball high on the bat, and it went straight to the fielder at long-on. Then it was Sanju Samson, after scoring a half-century hit one straight to long-off. Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan are the batters in the middle for India.
This is a blistering start for Sanju Samson too. He took a few balls initially, but once he got his eye in, he went ballistic against Omarzai and has not got the measure of Nabi. This is a pretty important innings for Samson; he has not had a good innings in Indian colours since his knock in the T20 World Cup 2026 final.
Abhishek Sharma is going on a rampage here early in the piece. He tends to be quite aggressive in the powerplay, but facing off-spin has been one of the achillies heel he did have during the T20 World Cup but since that during, in the IPL and even now, he seems to be batting with pretty attacking intent here.
Mujeeb has taken the new ball here for Afghanistan, which is expected, but usually it is Farooqi who starts things for them. However, it did not make much of a difference as India still squeezed 12 runs from that opening over. Abhishek Sharma has started in his usual aggressive way.
[On the communication with Nabi and the approach to building the partnership] We have to go longer and give partnership to the team and we have to finish and stay till last ball. We did well and unfortunately, we didn’t finish the last two, three overs well and yeah, we did good. [On enjoying bowling at the Arun Jaitley Stadium and his all-round performance] Yeah, I am enjoying bowling here much because I played here a lot and we had ODIs World Cup here and T20 World Cup. We played many series here. So now we know the condition, we know how wicket demands and where we have to bowl. Yeah, I’m trying my best and give my hundred percent and bowl in the right area. [On addressing the bowling concerns from the first T20I and doing their homework] Obviously, we had homework and we put that area. We didn’t bowl in the right area and today we will try to bowl in the right area and give our hundred percent and to minimize the boundaries. [On Afghanistan still being winless against India] Yeah, that’s true. We didn’t beat them and we’ll try to beat them today and we came here to beat them, we will give our hundred percent and focus on our process and we’ll try our best.
Well, it was a decent final over and spell from Nitish Kumar Reddy. Afghanistan have got to 159 runs; here it is a bit on the slower side compared to the previous game, and Indian batters might have to watch out a bit for the Afghan spinners, who might enjoy these conditions a bit more, but once again it is going to be that powerplay; if Abhishek Sharma gets a good start, it will be another easy peasy win for India. Do stay with us; we will be right back after the break.
Both Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi are giving the Indian bowlers a bit of a tap here. The stroke play from them has been quite exquisite. In the first game, Nabi had to play himself in constructing his innings, but here he is showing his range. Rashid, on the other hand, never needed a second invitation to go after the bowling in any situation of the game. Well we jinxed it as we update Bumrah got Nabi.
This has been a disappointing batting performance from Afghanistan. There seems to be a constant effort from them to try and get that massive score to overwhelm the Indian batting rather than stick to their strengths, which is getting a par score and then bamboozling the Indian batters with their wily spin.
India has managed to scalp two more wickets since our last update; it is both Omarzai and Rasooli who fell. Green shoots were blossoming in the partnership, but again the Indian bowlers, with their cunning variations, did it. Axar Patel got Omarzai to close out his tidy spell, and Arshdeep returned to pick up Rasooli.
Well, Gulbadin tried to hit the ball on the leg-side and got the leading edge. It went up high in the air, and in the end Sanju Samson took a pretty good catch. Well, Afghanistan are just managing to keep losing wickets here yet again as happened in the previous game. Omarzai is the middle and he needs rebuild here again.
Ravi Bishnoi has picked up the wicket here, and it is Atal. It was a googly, and that is what Bishnoi bowls, and to be fair to Atal, he did pick the shot well to play it through the off-side with turn, but he ended up giving the catch to the long-off fielder. He chewed up 14 deliveries for his 12, did Atal. As we update, Nitish has picked up Gulbadin.
Nitish Kumar Reddy has picked up a wicket here. Well, what do we know? It might seem like Afghanistan would target the Indian fifth bowling quota, as they had succeeded in the last game. The Andhra all-rounder had other plans. It was a flick from Zadran which went straight to cow-corner it was deep-mid wicket who was placed a tad bit squarer because of the sluggish nature of the wicket very good captaincy from Iyer.
This is good batting from Afghanistan. Ibrahim Zadran is batting pretty well and has managed to give Afghanistan a very good start here despite the early wicket. He has gone through those two overs of Bumrah; he would be looking to target the other bowlers. Afghanistan will know the fifth bowler quota in the Indian team is a bit of a concern, as they have seen it in the first game.
While Bumrah is bowling a tidy spell from one end, Arshdeep Singh has been the beneficiary of that pressure. Gurbaz tried to hit Arshdeep through the mid-on region and ended up getting the ball high on the bat, and the catch was taken inside the ring. It was a slower delivery too from Arshdeep Singh. He had a good game in the last one and started very well here.
Jasprit Bumrah has taken the opening over here, and he started with a maiden. He looked very good in the previous game, but he did slip in a few wide deliveries to start with; today, there are no such errors, and his radar seems to be pretty good. It might be Arshdeep Singh who will take the ball from the other end for India.
The players are walking into the middle. The crowd is buzzing here in Delhi, as it did on Sunday. Afghanistan are batting again here, and all they would want to do is put on a good performance, especially in the powerplay. The other day they lost one too many wickets, which basically ended their chances in the game.
How has your batting mindset evolved throughout your career?] I think initially there were a lot of thoughts going on in my head. You have to get runs for your team, you have to make everyone proud, you have to take care of your place in the team. So you bat accordingly, and when you think about this, I think a fear of failure comes into your game. So you start thinking about, I don't want to lose my wicket, which also initiates the fact that you won't be trying so many good shots. But at the end of the day, I think I've just realized that if you're in the middle, if you're calm, you're just trying to watch the ball and not the bowler, and you're just playing your shots. So, everything is taken care of, and you just have to keep it simple because at the end of the day when you're playing at this level, obviously you have all the skills and everything. It's just the mindset which is the most important thing. So the calmer you are in the middle, the better you get every day. [On enjoying fielding when he is not keeping] Hundred percent. I have been athletic throughout my life and I feel I'm very good when I'm fielding as well. But still I have dropped a few catches in the past few games, so I'll have to work a lot on my fielding as well. Because at this level, sometimes you drop catches and you don't realize it because the batsman did not score so much. But if you drop someone good from a good team, like you drop him around fourth or fifth over and he ends up getting runs, it will be a huge difference for us. So I'm just trying to work more on my fielding and wicketkeeping as well. So whenever you get an opportunity to keep or field, you're just there.
[On his performance with the bat in the Duleep Trophy] My job was to understand that (the) match is not over until it's over. There was still one day left, so I had to get those big runs coming because we were two wickets down and I know one partnership could make the shoulders down (in the third innings), but it's important to just be there, spend some time, so that they lose interest in the game and we are on the upper hand. So I was just thinking about spending some time and I ended up getting some good runs. [How would you describe your current mindset while batting?] I think I'm not over-trying to play shots. I'm not thinking about playing shots. It's just that my body's reacting to it. So I'm just focusing more on my hand-eye coordination. It's not that I'm thinking about a particular area where I want to hit. It's just about watching the ball till the last moment, understanding what the bowler is trying to do and where my run-scoring options are. So I'm just trying to keep it simple in the middle and not think too much about what I want to do, because at the end of the day I feel if I'm there, I'll end up getting good runs anyway.
[On losing the toss and being asked to bat first] Again, I would say if I have won the toss, I wanted to bowl first. But unfortunately, we lost it again and we will try to think about batting department, how to execute the plan well according to the condition. [On wanting a better start after losing several wickets inside the first 50 runs in the first T20I] Yeah, exactly. We thought about it. We want to play positive cricket. We came with positive intent. Yes, we didn't get a good start that day, but we covered in the middle overs. But we will try to play better cricket today, have a good start in the power play and put a good total on the board. [On whether Afghanistan have made any changes to the XI] No, we have got same eleven.
We're going to bowl first. Talking about tails, it's been lucky for me for the last couple of matches, irrespective of the results where it's gone. [On whether bowling first is a distinct advantage in T20 cricket] Well, you have a fair idea about how the wicket plays, and the bowler, it's important for the bowler to adapt as quickly as possible. So once you gauge the pace of the wicket, you know how the wicket is playing. So it becomes a little bit of advantage, but whichever team plays the best, they win. [On whether there was anything India wanted to do differently after the first T20I] Yes, absolutely. It wasn't comprehensive, though. We could have won it by a huge margin, but Azmat and Nabi, they played very well in between and they got crucial partnership. So kudos to them in that. And we as a bowling unit, we could have probably got some more wickets in the middle, especially in that phase from 10 to 15. And then coming into bat, obviously, they were phenomenal in their approach. [On changes to the playing XI] Yes, we've got one change. Unfortunately, Varun has got a side strain, so Bishnoi comes in for him.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran(c), Sediqullah Atal, Gulbadin Naib, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Sanju Samson(w), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravi Bishnoi
Shreyas Iyer wins toss and opts to bowl for IND vs AFG in New Delhi
[You’ll be so happy because the bowling performance was great] Yes, absolutely. I’m grateful for that, and everyone worked in synergy towards the success. And as I mentioned earlier, Bumrah is a great asset to the team, and, you know, giving that start, creating the momentum for all the bowlers coming in. Arshdeep also, he bowled brilliantly, followed by Axar and Varun, the way they bowled, it was phenomenal effort. [Could you have done something different with the last over, or you had no choice really?] Honestly speaking, there was no choice. And you saw that it’s a bit unfair for Dube as well coming in for the 20th over, not able to gauge the pace of the wicket, how the ball is going to go on. So yeah, I felt that he would be delivering at that particular moment, but it’s absolutely fine because it’s a game of cricket, and I’m sure that he’ll go and analyze what areas he needs to work on. [Ishan Kishan, are you seeing something different in the way he’s batting of late?] Yeah, starting off with Abhishek, I feel that the shots he played, it was flawless, and some of them were exemplary. But talking about Ishan, yeah, he’s been in great form currently, and the way he’s been portraying himself in the dressing room and also on the ground during practice sessions, he’s very relaxed, calm, and he knows his game at the moment. So that’s a great sign for us as a team.
9* by Bangladesh (2019-25)
9* by Afghanistan (2010-26)
8* by Zimbabwe (2024-26)
8 by Bangladesh (2009-18)
8 by Ireland (2009-24)
I mean, getting a catch in the first over, that also in the slips, makes you a bit more confident. So that’s how we started the innings today. So I’m very happy with that. [On the challenge of facing Jasprit Bumrah] I mean, of course, when we face him in the nets as well, it feels like we are playing first few overs Test cricket to him. So it’s always very, we’re always on our toes for him in the slips as well. [On his consistency and returning to form in T20 cricket] I mean, of course, once you have decided, because I still remember two years back we decided we want to play in a certain way. We want to dominate all the teams throughout the whole year before the World Cup and things went pretty well for all the team, and especially for the batsmen as well. But I think one or two series won’t define our team as a batting unit, because the way we all think as a batting unit, it always makes a team first. So we always wanted to give that start as openers, especially wickets like this, if you’re chasing 150, 160, and you give an early start as openers, it always makes you on the winning side.
The thing is England too was also good for me, it's just that we didn't win. It doesn't mean that it has gone for waste. We get to learn a lot from that (the losses) also. There is nothing that goes waste and as I said, today even if things wouldn't have gone our way, we would have had the same mindset as to learn something. So every match is a learning and the results sometimes come our way, sometimes it doesn't."
"It is not all about wickets. It's about if I'm bowling in the right place or not. Whatever happens after that, it's not in my control. So, what's in my control, still I pitch the ball. After the ball pitches, the ball can turn, or it cannot turn. It's not in my control. I'll see till that point (where the ball pitches). If it is still that (where he wants it to be), I am fine with it."
"I cannot go by results. If I go by results, I will start reacting to each and every thing. If it goes my way I will start feeling very happy, if it doesn't go my way I will become very sad. I cannot go that way. So the best way for me is to see the process. If it's a good ball and if it still goes for a 6 I will always take it. But if it's a bad ball and it's a wicket, I have to work on it. That's how it goes," he said at the post-match press conference following his team convincing seven-wicket triumph.
“Vaibhav’s first public image is in a Rising Pune Supergiant jersey. And he’s killing it today. He obviously has the talent, the shots, but it’s his confidence that captured my attention the most. Supreme confidence. Not overconfidence. When you get overconfident, that sparks the beginning of your downfall. Vaibhav has the confidence that ‘I can do it’. And whatever I have seen, he is improving with every game. His shots are perfect cricket shots. He is learning to alter himself a bit, and that will make him much more effective. He is a player for the big occasion,” he said.
“Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is worth all the praise in the world. He is a generational talent. Every IPL team owner is upset that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is not part of their team. And now since Lakshmi Mittal owns Rajasthan Royals, he will never let Vaibhav Sooryavanshi go anywhere. And if it ever happens, not just me… the entire IPL world of owners are waiting,” he said on Shubhankar Mishra’s podcast.
“This team management is playing around with Sanju Samson. I pity Samson. Either you give him an extended run and then drop him or give Vaibhav Sooryavanshi a run of matches without dropping him. The mistake India are making is both are getting two matches here and there. That’s not good for the player," Srikkanth said.
“Yesterday, because Sooryavanshi didn’t play, we started watching a movie," Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel. “My wife was shouting that Sooryavanshi didn’t play and started arguing that someone who was the Player of the Match in the last match isn’t playing. Even my wife is questioning his exclusion. You are not treating Sooryavanshi properly. Now, if he plays the next match, he’ll wonder whether he’ll be dropped if he doesn’t score."
“I get along really well with Axar (Axar Patel) bhai. We always talk, whether I’m at home or wherever I am. Whenever I call him, he picks up on the first ring, and he always replies to my messages. So, I have developed a brother-like relationship with him, and he’s a very great man. There are many other players like that whom I meet and talk to. I have met Virat bhai as well, but my friendship with Axar Patel is much deeper.”
“So you come here and face different challenges, different conditions. Some (pitches) are very dry here; if you go south side you’ll feel that there’s a dryness in the wicket. When you come (a) bit north, like Yorkshire, you’ll see a bit of cold,” he added.
“I personally feel it’s (English county experience) very good for batters and spinners. Obviously, you will see seaming conditions here and there, but you play here to get used to the challenges you face. You’re not going to face them back home because you grew up playing there and you know the conditions pretty well,” Kuldeep said.
“You want to play because when you are in the squad you want to play, but sometimes it doesn’t happen because of the whatever the management thinks… Last year, I was hoping to get a chance in a few games but it’s okay. Maybe next time,” he said.
“Sometimes you just have to go with the team combination or strategy, unfortunately or fortunately. Definitely you feel bad for yourself when you’re not playing, when you’re not part of the playing XI,” Kuldeep told South African broadcaster Neil Manthorp and former England fast bowler Steve Harmison in a talkSPORT interview.
Sediqullah Atal, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran (c), Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq.
Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan/Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh
Hello and welcome to our live blog of India taking on Afghanistan. The Men in Blue have already won the first game, and if they manage to win today, they will win the three-match series. Afghanistan, on the other hand, would want to pull off a miracle, which is to beat India for the first time and level the series.
The match at New Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium was defined by three notable "firsts": the Indian cricket team sang Vande Mataram together before a match for the first time, Richard Pybus made his T20I head coaching debut for Afghanistan, and the Afghan squad played their first international T20 since the 2026 T20 World Cup, with the resulting seven-month layoff showing clearly in their initial batting struggles. (Read more from Shuvaditya Bose)
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