Afghanistan were 43 for 5 inside seven overs, and they get one day to fix it
India lead the T20I series 1-0 and can seal it on Tuesday in Delhi. Afghanistan’s trouble in the opener was not the middle order that rescued them, it was the seven overs before it.
Sep 14, 2026
Afghanistan are the home side for this series, which is why India are the visitors at a ground they have played on for decades. They go back to the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday evening 1-0 up and one win from taking it. Afghanistan have a day to work out what went wrong, and most of it went wrong in the first seven overs.
The rescue act hid the real problem
Afghanistan were 43 for 5 inside seven overs in the opening match. Everything they did after that was good. Azmatullah Omarzai finished 64 not out off 44 balls with four fours and four sixes. Mohammad Nabi made 33. Their sixth-wicket stand was worth 83 off 56 deliveries and carried the innings to 156 for 8, which on that surface was not a total anyone would call embarrassing.
No side plans to bat that way, though. Omarzai and Nabi were repairing rather than building, and the cost showed at the death, when Afghanistan had nobody set to bat alongside Omarzai and he had to farm the strike. Arshdeep Singh finished with 3 for 19 and sent down 16 dots in his four overs. Jasprit Bumrah, back after the left knee problem that kept him out of the Sri Lanka Tests in August, had Rahmanullah Gurbaz caught for a duck in the first over of the series.
Then Abhishek Sharma batted for 32 balls
Whatever Afghanistan had left was gone before the halfway mark of the chase. Abhishek Sharma reached fifty off 22 balls and made 82 off 32, seven fours and seven sixes, at a strike rate of 256. His stand with Ishan Kishan was worth 121. India were home at 157 for 3 in 13.4 overs with 38 deliveries unused.
Who took the punishment should bother Afghanistan more than the margin did. Rashid Khan went for 34 without a wicket. Spin is what Afghanistan build their white-ball cricket on, and it is the department Abhishek went after hardest. Nabi was the one who broke the stand, finishing with 2 for 28 after Rashid held two catches on the rope to remove Abhishek and Kishan.
Afghanistan need a different first hour
Nothing changes for Ibrahim Zadran’s side unless the top order survives the new ball. Gurbaz and the rest have now faced Bumrah and Arshdeep on this pitch once, which is the one thing a two-day turnaround gives them. Bat through to the eighth over with seven or eight wickets standing and Afghanistan have a contest. Lose five again and Omarzai will be digging out of the same hole with the same shortage of partners.
India’s questions are smaller. Sanju Samson opened, kept wicket and made 10 off 8, which is one cheap score rather than a slump, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is the one waiting rather than playing. Shreyas Iyer is not going to break up an opening pair that has just put the game away inside 14 overs, so any change will come lower down the order.
Win on Tuesday and India take the series, leaving Thursday’s match at the same ground as a dead rubber. That is the gap Afghanistan have one day to close.