IND vs AFG 1st ODI: Gill's 84* and Rahul's 39* power India to seven-wicket win in rain-affected contest

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: The drainage system in Dharamsala is excellent. Which means we just need the rain to stop. Once that happens, the ground will be ready in the blink of an eye.

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: Going by the Dharamsala curator's facial expressions, things are not great. He spoke to his groundstaff, and they all looked without hope. Which can mean only one thing: the game is not going to start anytime soon. Those who haven't eaten their lunch yet can take a little break and come back.

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: For the match to begin, it has to completely stop. Meanwhile, former England spinner and renowned commentator Graeme Swann predicts, being an Englishman, that the rain is going to completely stop in the next one and a half hours. One really hopes he is right. But then sometimes Englishmen say those types of things! At times, they can be sickeningly optimistic. Haha

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: For that to happen, the game must not start by 6:32 pm India time. But are not we already a bit tired of T20s? I mean, not long ago there were full two months of the Indian Premier League action. Nope, we don't want a T20 match. If not 50 overs, at least it should be 40-overs. Come on rain, please go away!

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: But we can still be hopeful. By the way, India Women are up against arch-rivals Pakistan Women tomorrow in the T20 World Cup in England. The match starts 7pm India time. Pakistan's Fatima Sana recently hit the fastest T20I fitty in women's cricket, off just 15 balls. It's going to be a great contest for sure. As far as head-to-head is concerned, it's 6-2 in favour of India Women.

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: It's been at work since morning. You feel for the machine. Hopefully, the good work that it has done so far doesn't go to waste at the end. Anyway, now it's clear it's going to be a curtailed game. No way is it going to be a 50-overs contest.

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: Just saw this on TV. Maybe old footage, not sure. A lot of senior players are enjoying the rain, expect for Prince Yadav. Which is understandable. Poor guy wants to make his debut today but the rain is getting in the way! Some can find this hilarious.

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: 24-year-old Prince Yadav, in all likelihood. The fast bowler from Delhi, who represents Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League, has had a fantastic last couple of months. For LSG, he was really impressive with his pace and the ability to move the ball off the pitch both ways. He can bowl yorkers too. In one of the matches, he cleaned up Virat Kohli like a pro. He deserves to play today.

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: As expected, the toss has been delayed at Dharamsala thanks to a lot of rain since morning. The BCCI sent out a post on X informing this. We have been telling you this for sometime now, so hopefully you have not been taken aback by this piece of bad news.

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: Shubman Gill or Shreyas Iyer? Gill needs 47 runs, while Iyer needs 23. The captain or the vice captain, that's the question! But before that happens, rain has to go! The pitch and the area around it i covered at present. On TV meanwhile, former England spinner Graeme Swann is raving about the impressive talent pool of Indian cricket. He is not wrong. India at present are spoilt for choice.

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: Afghanistan don't play against a top team like India often, especially in a bilateral series. In fact, this is their first bilateral series against India. They get very few high-quality matches. So, if it gets washed out, it's something they won't like for sure. However, let's not be totally negative. Let's hope for the best. That the rain stops soon and we eventually get to see a competitive game.

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: Let's hope that the rain gods go away soon. By the way, did you hear that the English football team at the 2026 FIFA World Cup has had its training equipment stolen? Yep, believe it or not. Boots and balls are definitely missing. It happened at their base in Kansas City ahead of their opener against 2018 finalists Croatia. Is there any place in this world, where these things don't happen?

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: It's raining cats and dogs at present at Dharamsala. Hopefully, by the time we get to the toss time, around 1 pm India time, it's long gone. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride! What we hear that it's real bad. Even if it stops, it can take a lot of time to make the ground match-ready. Not the kind of news, you were looking for, I know. But that's how it is.

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: The pitch should help fast bowlers. In the recently concluded Indian Premier League, we saw pacers getting a lot of purchase off the pitch. Which, though, doesn't mean that batsmen will be all over the place. If anything, Dharamsala pitches are good for cricket. There is a good contest between bat and ball.

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: This is what India bowling coach Morne Morkel said the other day: "In terms of that No. 3 slot, it's something that in this we'll play around with, whether it's Ishan Kishan or KL Rahul or Yashasvi Jaiswal. It's a nice opportunity now, we've got a couple of one-day games coming up and we'll give guys opportunities indifferent slots just to give ourselves a better idea in terms of how we can go and structure teams and have different options."

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: Yes, that's a strong possibility. Yashasvi Jaiswal is an out-and-out opener and there is no vacany there. Ishan Kishan has batted at No.3 in recent T20Is for India. It should be him taking the injured Virat Kohli's place in the playing XI. KL Rahul may however continue to keep wicket. That way his place in the team much safter.

India XI (probable): 1 Shubman Gill (captain), 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), 6 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Prasidh Krishna, 11 Prince Yadav

India vs Afghanistan LIVE Score: To the first ODI blog coverage. The match will be played in Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh), where it should be much cooler compared to many other parts of the country. However, there is also a rain forecast in place. Stay tuned. We will bring you the latest updates from the match.