While India and Pakistan have met 16 times in T20Is overall, seven of these encounters came during the Women's T20 World Cup events
The two teams will now come face to face in the second ODI on Wednesday at Lucknow's Ekana Stadium
A positive start from Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma could be crucial to India's hopes of setting the tone for the tournament
Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, on Saturday, credited India head coach Gautam Gambhir for his technical inputs after smashing a 51-ball 102 against the hosts in the opening ODI here. While Gurbaz lit up the HPCA Stadium here with his explosive stroke play around the wickets to hammer eight sixes and as many fours for a ninth ODI ton, no other Afghanistan batter could provide any resistance against the Indian bowlers as they were bowled out for 194. Gurbaz revealed that a chat with Gambhir, with whom he has shared the dressing room during his KKR days, proved to be fruitful. It happened after Afghanistan's innings and 300 run defeat in the one-off game at Mullanpur. "After the Test match, I had a very good conversation with Gautam Gambhir sir (and) that discussion really helped me," Gurbaz told the broadcaster. "I worked on those ideas in the nets, and I'm very grateful for the guidance. When the Test match ended, I told him that I wanted to improve my shot selection," he ...
As part of the preparations, India are planning to strengthen their bench strength as they will field two debutants in Dharamsala in the form of spinner Harsh Dubey and pacer Gurnoor Brar
According to the weather report, the first ODI between India and Afghanistan in Dharamsala could be heavily affected by rain, with the probability of precipitation highest in the early afternoon
JioHotstar in India will stream the India vs Afghanistan first ODI match through its app and website
The ODI series vs Afghanistan will be crucial for the home side, who are still going through the process of transition with skipper Gill at the helm
Shreyas Iyer's T20I appointment signals India's move away from the all-format captaincy model that shaped the Dhoni, Kohli, and Rohit eras, towards a more format-specific leadership
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has strong Youth ODI numbers and an IPL 2026 Orange Cap, but India's ODI depth means he must prove himself in senior cricket
India have lost five of their last nine Tests on spin-friendly tracks and now face a Sri Lankan side whose home success still rests heavily on slow bowling
Manav is now the tenth Indian bowler to take a five-wicket haul on Test debut
India's win by an innings and 300 runs against Afghanistan is now their biggest victory in Test cricket by margin of runs
After declaring their first innings at a commanding 564/8, India struck regularly with the ball, with Suthar claiming three wickets and Prasidh Krishna adding two
Saleem, who went wicketless in his Test debut against Sri Lanka, performed with brilliant consistency and added big names like Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan to his wicket column in Mullanpur
Sai Sudharsan and Rishabh Pant also dominated the Afghanistan bowling attack with brilliant half-centuries
Shreyas Iyer is the only captain in IPL history to lead three franchises into the final
India's gold medal-winning captain at the Asian Games 2022 will not be part of India's 15-member squad in 2026
India ODI vice-captain Shreyas Iyer has been announced as India's new skipper for T20Is, replacing Suryakumar Yadav
BCCI, along with India's squad for the bilateral series against Ireland and England, will also announce the squad for the Asian Games 2026 later this year