IND vs AFG 2nd T20I: India eye series win as fringe players look to impress

A series win over Afghanistan is still not counted among the grandstand cricketing feats but a clutch of players will be eager to achieve that here on Sunday in the second T20I as it can transform them into contenders from sidekicksIndia had won the first game at Mohali by six wickets to take a 10 leadIt is then imperative for Jitesh Sharma Washington Sundar and Axar Patel to produce a defining effort against the Afghans to keep themselves within the selectorsrsquo sight as the move to find a perfect squad for the T20 World Cup gathers steamAlso Read IN PHOTOS Most wickets in Womens T20IsJunersquos big eventThat India will not play another T20I series ahead of the marquee event in June increases the gravitas around their performance against AfghanistanJitesh has all the reasons to place himself among the frontrunners as the wicketkeeper batter has overtaken Ishan Kishan in the pecking order since replacing the latter from the fourth T20I against Australia at Raipur last yearThe Maharashtra man has struck a couple of useful 30s down the order but he would not have missed the need for a bigger knock to cement his claimIn the oftenfickle selection landscape of Indian cricket Jitesh at 30 would know very well that only constant performances can help him save that frontrunner statusTilak Varma offers a very similar case The lefthander had made an excellent start to his T20I career last year making 39 51 and 49 not out against the West Indies in an away threematch seriesBut since then Varma has tapered off The next 13 innings have produced only one more fifty against a below par Bangladesh in the Asian Games with three 20plus scores and one 30plus knock dominating the rest of the outingsAlso Read IN PHOTOS Indian players with most ducks in T20IsHowever it remains to be seen whether Varma can retain his place in the side as star batsman Virat Kohli is available for this match after skipping the first gameAfter missing out on the 50over World Cup with an injury Axar now seems to be back in the thick of things in both red and white ball formatsOn Friday the leftarm spinner was included in the India squad for the first two Tests against England and he dished out a fine spell at the PCA Stadium on Thursday night as wellmdash40232Task cut out for SundarSo the Gujarat man will be eager to weave on the pattern and contribute to a series triumph here Sundar too has earned a recall but has not set the stage ablaze so far on his return He will also eye a change in the second matchThe hope in the hearts of Jitesh and Varma might just have received a fillip as the Indore pitch often provides plenty of assistance to batsmen as they can expect a fruitful outing hereBut it mandates Axar and Sundar to be at their absolute crafty best However it will be immature to take this Afghan side for granted The young Rahmanullah Gurbaz Azmatullah Omarzai and the experienced Mohd Nabi can tear apart a bowling unitDespite the absence of star spinner Rashid Khan the Afghans have the services of Mujeeb ur Rahman who was in good rhythm in the first matchThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever