India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and sent Afghanistan in at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, opening a three-match T20I series that Afghanistan are hosting on Indian soil.
The series, branded the Friendship Cup, is India’s last proper T20 dress rehearsal before the Asian Games in Japan.
Iyer’s call was local more than tactical theatre. “Whenever you come to Delhi, you know what the pitch has got to offer; it usually is a bowl-first wicket,” he said after the toss. Pitch reports backed him: a hard surface with enough grass to hold together, not expected to turn into a slow, low track, with 170–180 tagged as a defendable total if the bowlers hit their lengths.
The XI told a second story. Jasprit Bumrah is back in India’s T20I side for the first time since IPL 2026 and will play under Iyer’s captaincy for the first time. Sanju Samson returns behind the stumps and at the top of the order. Teenage batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who impressed in Zimbabwe, and Washington Sundar both miss out. Ishan Kishan stays in as a specialist batter after a back scare in the nets.
That combination looks closer to a World Cup-shaped side than a development XI: power at the top, two all-rounders in Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shivam Dube, Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy for spin, and Bumrah-Arshdeep as the new-ball pair.
Afghanistan left out Naveen-ul-Haq and went with a familiar, experienced core. Ibrahim Zadran leads a side stacked with T20 specialists — Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad and Fazalhaq Farooqi — and has spoken about wanting to become the first Afghan captain to beat India in international cricket.
The pre-match ceremony matched the series name. Captains exchanged framed jerseys and caps beside the Friendship Cup memento before the coin went up. Afghanistan remain the designated home team even though all three matches — September 13, 15 and 17 — are in Delhi, a long-standing arrangement that has allowed the ACB to keep hosting international cricket away from home.
India Playing XI
1. Sanju Samson (wk)
2. Abhishek Sharma
3. Ishan Kishan
4. Shreyas Iyer (c)
5. Tilak Varma
6. Nitish Kumar Reddy
7. Shivam Dube
8. Axar Patel
9. Arshdeep Singh
10. Jasprit Bumrah
11. Varun Chakravarthy
Afghanistan Playing XI
1. Ibrahim Zadran (c)
2. Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk)
3. Sediqullah Atal
4. Darwish Rasooli
5. Azmatullah Omarzai
6. Gulbadin Naib
7. Mohammad Nabi
8. Rashid Khan
9. Mujeeb Ur Rahman
10. Noor Ahmad
11. Fazalhaq Farooqi
India’s bench for the night includes Sooryavanshi, Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi and Yash Thakur. Afghanistan’s unused options include Naveen-ul-Haq.
The series now has a clear first statement: India trust Delhi’s evening conditions and their established names. Afghanistan have the bowling depth to punish any chase that starts too slowly.
