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Bumrah recovers well from conceding consecutive fours, giving away just one more run off the next four deliveries.
Nonetheless, a good over for the Afghans – they take 9 runs from it.
Zadran hits the paceman for back-to-back fours! Wow!
First, he lofts it over the infield and then a misfield by Dube at the boundary gives him four more runs.
Arshdeep concedes a leg-bye off the fourth ball before Zadran takes a single off the final delivery.
Afghanistan, the hosts for this game, are in deep trouble here.
Arshdeep, who took three wickets in the last game, strikes again this evening!
After two dot balls, Gurbaz tries to go big, but fails as he is caught at mid-on by Bishnoi.
Frustrated with his choice, Gurbaz lets out a huge roar before walking off the pitch.
Back-to-back ducks for the Afghan opener.
Bumrah tests Zadran with a tricky yorker off the fourth delivery before following it with another dot.
He wraps up his perfect start with another dot to complete his maiden over!
The paceman starts with three dot balls.
The action begins under the lights at Arun Jaitley Stadium in the Indian capital.
Jasprit Bumrah will open the bowling for India, while captain Ibrahim Zadran and wicketkeeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz start Afghanistan’s batting.
The pre-match formalities are complete, and it’s time to shift our focus to the action.
Sit back, relax and enjoy the next few hours of T20 cricket between reigning world champions India and Afghanistan!
Players from both sides have taken the field as we prepare for a rendition of the respective anthems.
First, we’ll have Afghanistan’s anthem followed by India’s.
Reigning T20 world champions India will face Afghanistan in the remaining two T20Is this evening and on Thursday, respectively, in New Delhi before travelling to Sano for a historic one-off T20I against Japan on September 22.
After that, they will begin their Asian Games campaign in Aichi-Nagoya in Japan.
The Indian cricket board, BCCI, says the bowler is ruled out for tonight’s match as well as the next on Thursday.
𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲: Varun Chakaravarthy experienced sudden-onset discomfort in his left lateral abdominal region while bowling his third over in the first T20I. Scans have revealed a side strain, and he has subsequently been ruled out of the remaining two T20Is.#TeamIndia | #AFGvIND
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 15, 2026
Afghanistan are unchanged from the last match.
Afghanistan XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wicketkeeper), Ibrahim Zadran (captain), Sediqullah Atal, Gulbadin Naib, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi
India have made one change from the last game, as the injured Varun Chakaravarthy makes way for Ravi Bishnoi.
India XI: Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravi Bishnoi
“We would have bowled first as well,” Zadran said at the toss.
“We want to play positive cricket. We didn’t get a good start that day [on Sunday in the first T20I], but we covered in the middle.
“We will try to do better tonight.”
“You have a fair idea of how the wicket plays, and it gives the bowlers an idea, a little bit of an advantage,” Iyer said at the toss.
Talking about the first T20I, he added: “It wasn’t comprehensive because we could have won by a huge margin. As a bowling unit, we could have picked wickets in the middle.”
India’s skipper Shreyas Iyer has won the toss and his team will bowl first.
If you have just joined us, India have a 1-0 lead in this three-match series, having won the first game by seven wickets on Sunday.
You can get involved in our live coverage of India against Afghanistan via our poll on X:
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— AJE Sport (@AJE_Sport) September 15, 2026
As we build-up to the start of India against Afghanistan, you can review more of our coverage from cricket this year.
Before India and Pakistan’s match at the Men’s T20 World Cup in February, The Take looked into the rivalry between the sides and explored what led up to the near abandonment of the match:
India won the first match of the two game series by seven wickets on Sunday.
Arshdeep Singh (3-19), Abhishek Sharma (82) and Ishan Kishan (42) starred for the hosts.
Afghanistan totalled 156-8, which India chased down in 13.4 overs.
Hello, welcome and thanks for joining our live coverage of the T20 between India and Afghanistan.
The match, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi, is the second T20 international of their three-match cricket series.
India won the opening game by seven wickets.
I’m Kevin Hand, bringing you up to speed with all the key updates, tournament history, news from both camps, statistics, predictions and much more.
Manasi Pathak will join us for the toss and live text commentary of the action.
Stay with Al Jazeera Sport as we build up to the final.
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