Rose Bowl, another ground for chasing, and of course win toss choose to field ground.
India is going to play their first encounter against Afghanistan in the world cup tournament. India is at a strong position, so India can go for resting their key players and try some other players, but in that case, the rest of the team needs to take the responsibility, as Afghanistan is not the team, whom any team can take them lightly, as Afghanistan is one of the favourite teams of having upset.
As the pitch is again for batting, so India should try for different bowling variation. India has one forced change of placing M Shami in place of B Kumar. So I think India should stay with V Shankar for bowling practice. India can try R Pant in place of MS Dhoni, or India can try to go with D Karthik and provide rest to RG Sharma, but I don’t think India should go for both the changes, as it might be too risky for India, as B Kumar will not be able to play for next 2 matches, so India will have very weak lower order. India can ask KL Rahul to have rest and play with DK and RG Sharma in the opening, but it’s not recommended, as he needs to play to get confidence to be an opening slot.
On the other hand, Afghanistan may have definitely confusion to select their eleven, as their bowling strength is spin, against whom India is playing really well, and their pace unit is not that much impactful, so it is interesting to see what will be their eleven. But I think they should go for their strength and select their trio spin weapons, MU Rahman, M Nabi and R Khan, as tomorrow’s match is the knockout match for them, if they will, they will be in the top four contestants, but if they will lose, they will be out of the tournament. Afghanistan has a problem in the opening slot as H Zazai didn’t look in his best form, but the flexibility is the captain Naib can open as well. They can make their middle order strong enough after including H Shahidi, N Zadran and A Afghan, but in that case, they need to compromise a little in their bowling, though they have a couple of all-rounders. Due to batting pitch, Afghanistan can include H Zazai, but in that case, they need to compromise with their middle order, tough it might be a risk.
Playing eleven,
India 11: KL Rahul, RG Sharma / D Karthik, V Kohli, V Shankar, MS Dhoni / R Pant, K Jadhav, H Pandya, K Yadav, M Shami, Y Chahal, J Bumrah.
Afghanistan 11: NA Zadran, G Naib, R Shah, H Shahidi, N Zadran, A Afghan, M Nabi, I Alikhil, R Khan, D Zadran, MU Rahman
