Captain Shreyas Iyer could finally hand a much-awaited home debut to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the third T20I match. The 15-year-old prodigy was dropped for the first two games of the T20I series, which India won comfortably by seven-wicket margins, as Sanju Samson returned to the opening position.
Samson answered his critics with a brilliant 57 off 22 balls in the second T20I match on Tuesday. It maybe hard to drop Samson, who was rested for the T20I series against Zimbabwe in July where Sooryavanshi had become the ‘Player of the Series’ and scored 81 in his last match.
But world No. 2 batter Abhishek Sharma can be rested after scoring 82 and 39 in the first two outings with the bat. Another key player who might be rested is pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who made his international comeback against Afghanistan.
Bumrah completed his full tally of overs in the first two T20I matches and appears fit for bigger challenges ahead in the Asian Games 2026, where Shreyas Iyer’s side will look to defend their gold medal. If the Mumbai Indians pacer is rested then Yash Thakur could get a look-in after impressing in a couple of matches in Zimbabwe earlier this year.
Ibrahim Zadran’s Afghanistan, on the other hand, don’t have any injury concerns but may like to bring in either pacer Naveen-ul-Haq or Abdullah Ahmadzai to bolster their fast bowling resources as spinners have proven to be rather ineffective.
India vs Afghanistan 2026 3rd T20 Predicted 11
India: Abhishek Sharma/Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (C), Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah/Yash Thakur
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran (c), Sediqullah Atal, Gulbadin Naib, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman/Naveen-ul-Haq/Abdullah Ahmadzai, Fazalhaq Farooqi