“Expected Shami” – Fans react as Shardul Thakur replaces Ravichandran Ashwin in playing XI for IND vs AFG 2023 World Cup match

Shardul Thakur replaced Ravichandran Ashwin in India's playing XI for their game against Afghanistan in the ongoing 2023 World Cup at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Wednesday (October 11).

Ashwin has been dropped following his 1/34 in the last game against Australia, which India won by six wickets to kick-start their campaign in the marquee ICC tournament. The all-rounder in Thakur will add firepower to the pace attack on the belter and add batting depth.

At the toss, India captain Rohit Sharma said:

“Ashwin misses out, Shardul Thakur comes in for him.”

Surprisingly, Thakur had ended wicketless in the last two games against Australia. He, however, has scalped 19 wickets in 13 ODIs at an economy rate of 6.35 this year.

Fans on X (formerly known as Twitter) were surprised by the inclusion of Shardul over Mohammed Shami. One user wrote:

"India made a change which is expected. Ashwin out Shardul Thakur in. I expected Shami today, took hat-trick vs Afghanistan last World Cup."

Here are some more reactions:

Afghanistan opt to bat against India; Shardul Thakur only change

Afghanistan captain Hasmatullah Shahidi won the toss and opted to bat first against India in the World Cup game on Wednesday. They have fielded the same XI despite losing their opening game against Bangladesh by six wickets.

At the toss, he said:

“We will bat first. It looks like a good batting surface. We have a good bowling attack to restrict them. It looks like a good surface, we want to bounce back with the bat. We are enjoying, good chance to showcase our talent. We are going with the same team.”

Rohit, meanwhile, said that they wished to bat second in the first place due to the dew factor:

“We were looking to bat second. We saw the amount of dew last evening. Don't think the wicket will change much. Need to bowl well and need to come back and bat better.”

Teams:

Afghanistan XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (w), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi

India XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Follow IND vs AUS 2023 World Cup live score updates here.