India vs Afghanistan, 1st ODI, Afghanistan tour of India 2026 - CommentaryIND vs AFG, 1st ODI, Afghanistan tour of India 2026 - Commentary

A comprehensive victory for India in the end. but they were under immense pressure when Rahmanullah Gurbaz was going all guns blazing. India will be happy with their debutants and the batting was good as well. For Afghanistan, success depends on playing a perfect game, both with bat and ball. The two teams now travel to Lucknow for the 2nd ODI on the 17th. Do join us on Wednesday for all the action. For now, cheers and bye..

Shubman Gill | India Captain | PotM - I mean, it was kind of a T20 game, I think the way we started and then they pulled the game away from us. Gurbaz batted brilliantly, the way he got his century was brilliant. But I think the way we pulled back in the middle overs and the death overs was brilliant. Honestly, I think it was a brilliant wicket to bat on. It was, as the match went on, even when we were bowling, there was a little bit of grip for the spinners. When they were bowling, the ball was coming on pretty nicely. (Talks about the slip catch) No, I definitely caught the ball, practicing a lot, taking a lot of slip catches and even, you know, before the match, I was talking to a friend, he was that I haven’t really taken like a really brilliant catch in my international career so far, one-handed and very happy to get that catch. (Talking about the run-out) He saw the replay, he said it's fine. Even in the last match that we played against Afghanistan, T20s, he got run out there as well. (What do you think about the debutants today) Very impressive, upfront, how Gurnoor bowled, brilliant pace and the way he was swinging the ball, the kind of length he bowled consistently and even Harsh as well, after I think in the first over, he went for 16-17 runs and the way he pulled the game back, trusted himself and kept tossing the ball up. It was very impressive. I think the middle overs in one-day games is very crucial, if you can keep, as a bowling group, if we can keep building pressure in the middle overs and keep creating opportunities and same when we are batting, if we can keep rotating the strike, keep batting at a healthy run rate, 6-6.5, without losing too many wickets, then you can really set up the game in the death. So these are the key points that we discuss in team meetings, how can we keep creating opportunities in the middle overs as a bowling group and when we are batting, how can we, keep really pumping on the runs.

Hashmatullah Shahidi | Afghanistan Captain - Yeah, it was a tough game. I think back-to-back wickets was the reason. I was feeling that when Gurbaz was playing, I was feeling that if we scored 220, 230, that might be a good target, but we gave some back-to-back wickets and after that, we were short of almost 30 runs, I think. (What was the thinking when you were batting?) I think in my mind, I was trying to target the left-arm spinner because the boundary was also shorter that side. But I think Gurbaz played really well, but after that, we did some mistakes. It started for me and then other batsmen. That’s why we were like 30 runs short. (Anything with the ball you could have done differently?) Well, the wicket was also, to be honest, a little bit flatter, but we were not that much disciplined in our bowling as well. So hopefully we learn from this and we come back stronger into the next match.

Stats by Roshan Gede

India in run-chases in ODIs since 2023
Matches: 30
Wins: 23
Defeats: 6
Tied: 1
Win%: 76.6% (Best among all teams)

A drone show depicting the culture of the hills and its famous sons who've sacrificed their lives for the nationa has started at the end of the match. Not sure if it'll delay the presentations. But hang on, we'll brings all the comments from the two captains and the player of the match.

22:09 Local Time, 16:39 GMT, 22:09 IST: The crowd came to watch a 50-over game, but they've been well entertained in this 25-over match. India needed a good start in the chase of 194 and Rohit started off well. he was joined by Gill and the pair added 46 runs for the opening wicket. A terrible mix-up sent Rohit back, but Gill kept on finding the boundaries. Ishan Kishan did the same with a sparkling 22-ball 34, followed by KL Rahul, who remained unbeaten on a 19-ball 39. Afghanistan could never find any momentum with the ball and struggled to take wickets. Rashid Khan was slightly expensive, but he did take one wicket. The pacers went for runs and India continues to remain unbeaten against Afghanistan in ODIs. The visitors will look back at their batting in the last 10 overs, especially after the dismissal of Rahmanullah Gurbaz. They left themselves a few runs short and eventually paid the penalty.

33 needed off 4 overs, still India's game to lose