Afghanistan Tour of India 2026 · 2nd ODI · Lucknow
Can India Seal the Series Under the Lights in Lucknow?
After a Gurbaz masterclass and a Gill chase for the ages in Dharamsala, India arrive in Lucknow one win away from wrapping this series up early.
Match
2nd ODI (D/N)
Venue
Ekana Stadium, Lucknow
Date
Wednesday, June 17
Start Time
1:30 PM IST
IND vs AFG · 1st ODI · Ekana Stadium, Lucknow
India smash 402 after Afghanistan win toss, opt to bowl
Gill's 154 and Kishan's 125 power India to a mammoth total at Ekana Stadium
Read the full recap →
Four days ago, Dharamsala gave us a timely reminder that this Afghanistan side is not the soft touch in white-ball cricket they used to be tagged as. Rain trimmed the first ODI down to 25 overs a side, Rahmanullah Gurbaz turned the powerplay into his own personal highlight reel, and for a good hour it genuinely felt like Afghanistan might pull off something special on Indian soil. Then Shubman Gill walked out, played the chase like he had all the time in the world, and India strolled home with seven wickets and 13 balls still in hand.
One down, two to go. And on Wednesday evening, under the lights at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, India get their first real chance to put this series to bed with a game still in hand — something that would let them experiment a little in the final ODI in Chennai without any pressure on the scoreline.
How We Got Here
Let's rewind briefly, because the first ODI wasn't quite as one-sided as that final scoreline suggests. India won the toss and asked Afghanistan to bat first, a decision that looked shaky inside the first hour. Gurbaz simply took the game away from the bowlers — 102 off just 51 balls, built on pure timing rather than brute force, studded with eight fours and eight sixes. For a while, it looked like Afghanistan might post something well beyond 250 even in a rain-shortened game.
But that's the funny thing about one-man shows — once the headline act leaves the stage, the rest of the cast often struggles to fill the silence. After Gurbaz fell, the remaining Afghan batters managed only 80 runs between them, and the innings folded for 194 in 24.5 overs. India's chase wasn't entirely stress-free either; Rohit Sharma fell early, and there was a brief wobble before Gill and KL Rahul settled things with calm, unhurried batting. Gill finished unbeaten on a composed 84 off 66 balls and walked away with the Player of the Match award — a fitting reward for an innings that looked less like a chase and more like a captain quietly taking control of a room.
The other story from Dharamsala — and arguably the more important one for India's longer-term planning — was the impact of two uncapped names. Gurnoor Brar picked up 3 for 27 and Harsh Dubey claimed 3 for 47 on their ODI debuts, doing exactly the kind of "we belong here" stuff that selectors love to see from rookies thrown in at the deep end.
The Lucknow Factor
Now to the venue. The Ekana Stadium has built a bit of a reputation over the years as a ground where chasing teams generally fancy their chances, especially once the floodlights come on. As the evening dew settles in, the ball tends to get harder to grip — which can blunt spinners and even take some zip away from seam bowlers trying to extract swing late in the innings. Batting line-ups, on the other hand, have usually found a fairly true, even surface that doesn't do too many unpredictable things off the pitch.
"If recent history at Ekana is any guide, whoever wins the toss might think hard about bowling first and chasing under the lights."
Nothing here is set in stone, of course — pitches evolve, groundstaff preparation matters, and this will be one of the bigger international fixtures the venue has hosted in a while. But if you're filling in a prediction card before the toss, "team batting second has the slight edge" isn't a bad starting assumption.
Squad Watch: The Bigger Picture
Here's the thing, though — the more interesting story heading into this game isn't really about the opposition. It's about who's wearing the India jersey, and why.
With Virat Kohli not part of this ODI squad, and both Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya carrying the kind of squad-list asterisks that usually mean "workload management in progress," India's current ODI set-up is as much an audition as it is a bilateral series. Captain Shubman Gill has spoken openly about giving the new faces — Gurnoor Brar, Harsh Dubey, and Prince Yadav, all uncapped before this tour began — real opportunities to stake their claim, and two of the three grabbed theirs with both hands in Dharamsala.
The question for Lucknow is whether the team management sticks with a winning combination or rotates further to give Prince Yadav a look as well. Given how well Brar and Dubey bowled, and given that India have just come through a long IPL season followed by a T20 World Cup campaign, don't be surprised if any changes are minimal. Sometimes the smartest squad decision is the simplest one: don't break what's working.
Predicted Playing XIs
With the obvious caveat that nets sessions, fitness checks, and last-minute team meetings can always throw up a surprise, here's how both sides could line up in Lucknow.
Predicted XI
India
- Shubman Gill (c)
- Rohit Sharma
- Yashasvi Jaiswal / Ishan Kishan
- KL Rahul (wk)
- Shreyas Iyer
- Washington Sundar
- Nitish Kumar Reddy
- Harsh Dubey
- Arshdeep Singh
- Gurnoor Brar
- Prasidh Krishna
Predicted XI
Afghanistan
- Ibrahim Zadran
- Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk)
- Sediqullah Atal
- Rahmat Shah
- Hashmatullah Shahidi (c)
- Azmatullah Omarzai
- Mohammad Nabi
- Rashid Khan
- AM Ghazanfar
- Mohammad Saleem
- Fazalhaq Farooqi
For India, expect Gill to continue both captaining and opening, with the No. 3 spot likely to remain a slight puzzle between Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ishan Kishan depending on the team's read of the conditions. Shreyas Iyer's experience in the middle order, paired with the all-round balance of Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy, gives India plenty of batting depth even at No. 7 and 8 — a luxury that lets the bowling attack stay aggressive without fear of a batting collapse.
For Afghanistan, Gurbaz's form at the top is the one genuine bright spot they'll want to build on, batting alongside the dependable Ibrahim Zadran. Rahmat Shah and captain Hashmatullah Shahidi anchor the middle order, while Azmatullah Omarzai offers exactly the kind of all-round X-factor that's been the difference in some of Afghanistan's biggest wins over the past few years. The bowling attack — built around the spin trio of Rashid Khan, AM Ghazanfar, and Mohammad Nabi alongside the pace of Fazalhaq Farooqi — remains genuinely one of the most dangerous in world cricket on its day. If Afghanistan are going to bounce back, it's likely this spin-heavy attack that will need to do the heavy lifting on a surface that can grip a little more as the game wears on.
By the Numbers
Prediction & What to Watch For
On paper — with home advantage, momentum, and a deeper bench all pointing one way — India go into this game as clear favourites to make it 2-0 and wrap up the series with a match still to spare. But Afghanistan have made something of a habit in recent years of turning up just when they're written off, and a Gurbaz special at the top or a Rashid Khan masterclass with the ball could flip this on its head inside a single session.
That's exactly why this one's worth your evening. Keep an eye on the toss call first — it might tell you more about how this game will play out than almost anything else. After that, watch whether India hand Prince Yadav his debut, whether Gurbaz can repeat his Dharamsala heroics against a bowling attack that now knows exactly what he's capable of, and how the Lucknow dew shapes the back end of the chase.
Following the Match?
We'll have the toss update, confirmed playing XIs, and live score updates right here as soon as they drop. Bookmark this page and check back closer to the 1:30 PM start.
Get Live UpdatesSo — who do you think wins this one? India in a canter, or Afghanistan springing a surprise in Lucknow? Drop your prediction in the comments below, and let's see who calls it right.
.png)
Posts
0 Comments