Vaibhav Sooryavanshi dropped despite Player of the Series effort; Sanju Samson reclaims place as opener vs Afghanistan

Instead, the team reinstalled T20 World Cup Player of the Tournament Sanju Samson alongside Abhishek Sharma at the top of the order, resolving a selection quandary Iyer had previously acknowledged would require a difficult discussion with whoever missed out.

After winning the toss and electing to field, Iyer refrained from extensively discussing the lineup selection with broadcaster Sanjay Manjrekar, simply highlighting the team's need to maintain the positive mindset established in the previous series. The omission follows earlier scrutiny faced by Iyer and Gambhir during the UK tour, where Samson was sidelined after three quiet innings across Ireland and England, only for Sooryavanshi to also be temporarily dropped after failing to transfer his IPL exploits to his first three international outings before later starring in Zimbabwe when Samson was rested.

India entered the series opener fielding Samson, Abhishek, Ishan Kishan, Iyer, Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, and Varun Chakaravarthy, while Ibrahim Zadran led an Afghan side featuring Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sediqullah Atal, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, and Fazalhaq Farooqi.

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