Afghanistan vs India 2026 | 2nd T20I | Preview and Predictions

The Abhishek Sharma onslaught last time out saw India start the series against Afghanistan with a thumping seven-wicket win in a one-sided affair. Afghanistan were pretty much outplayed in all departments and will be looking to come back strong in the second game.

For the second T20I between Afghanistan and India, here we present our preview and predictions.

AFG vs IND 2026 | 2nd T20I | 19:30 IST, September 15, 2026

Despite not playing a T20 international since the World Cup final earlier in the year, Jasprit Bumrah showed his class in the first T20I, providing the early breakthrough and keeping the pressure on the Afghan batters.

Along with Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh was also on the money with the new ball. Spinners Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy were at their economical best and kept the pressure on, and while it was a solid bowling performance as a unit, one area the management will look to improve on will be the fifth bowler, with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shivam Dube both leaking runs.

With the bat, India gave Sanju Samson a start against Afghanistan, but the wicketkeeper-batter failed once again. It remains to be seen how long the management chooses to keep a talent like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi on the bench.

Chasing an average target, despite losing Samson early, the onslaught from Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan, a 119-run stand inside eight overs, helped India ease to a seven-wicket win, chasing down 157 in 13.4 overs.

The hosts, on the other hand, had a horror start with the bat. Poor shot selection and mix-ups saw Afghanistan slip to 43/5, before a late recovery partnership from Azmatullah Omarzai and Mohammad Nabi helped them post a respectable but under-par 156.

The Afghan batting unit will need to step up. Given the boundary sizes, as well as how well the ball came on to the bat for Omarzai and Nabi in the series opener, the team will know they can put up a fight if they apply themselves.

With the ball, Afghanistan’s bowlers were taken apart by Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan, with their star spinner Rashid Khan going the distance as well. Other than Mujeeb Ur Rahman, all other bowlers went over nine runs an over. Going forward, the bowlers will back themselves to have better outings now that they have a better understanding of the wicket.

The Delhi strip has shown us that it’s a good batting pitch, with the small boundaries further making runs easy to come by.

India starts as favourites for us once again, although we expect Afghanistan to put up a better fight.

Fantasy XI: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma (vc), Ishan Kishan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Axar Patel, Rashid Khan, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah (c), Azmatullah Omarzai

Venue: Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi
Winners Prediction: India