2024 T20 World Cup: Predicting 3 players who could pick up the most wickets in today’s India vs Afghanistan match

India and Afghanistan have reached the Super-Eights of the 2024 T20 World Cup on the backs of their equally excellent but quite contrasting bowling attacks.

While India have relied on as many as four pacers, including Hardik Pandya, Afghanistan's balance has similarly been tilted towards spinners with just two specialist pacers. When India have had to play safe with two left-arm spinners to support their batting, Afghanistan carried two aggressive wrist spinners.

There's no proven bowling combination that works in the West Indies. Yes, there are methods to control each phase of the game but Caribbean Premier League (CPL)-winning teams of the past have played with an assortment of attacks.

When you consider the thinly veiled weaknesses in both the Indian and Afghan batting line-ups, this contest becomes more interesting and heavily tilted toward bowlers.

Below, we predict three bowlers who we think can pick the most wickets:

#3 Fazalhaq Farooqi

When you are playing India, the left-arm seamer automatically becomes a big threat, perhaps an even bigger one than the world-beating Rashid Khan. Even though the Men in Blue have tried to solve the issue by brimming the team with left-handed batters, the top two of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are still vulnerable to left-arm quicks like they were against the US's Saurabh Netravalkar.

And Farooqi is a much more experienced bowler than Netravalkar and carries more pace and better death-over abilities. He loves bowling in the West Indies thanks to the amount of swing available in the powerplay. His form is excellent too - 12 wickets in four games in the group stage, all coming in the Caribbean.

India's middle order might be able to manage him but the top and the lower orders will have to be at their absolute best to keep him away from the wickets column.

#2 Arshdeep Singh

India have an experienced and in-form left-arm quick of their own in Arshdeep Singh. He loves the West Indies too, having picked up seven wickets in six T20Is here, the second-best for an Indian after Ashish Nerha (10 wickets in the 2010 T20 World Cup). Arshdeep is also coming off a record-breaking 4/9 against the USA.

Afghanistan's openers are in good form but showed their powerplay vulnerabilities against the West Indies. With a bit of swing, Arshdeep will be able to put up a good challenge against them.

He also has a good T20I record against the Afghans - five wickets (including the likes of Mohammad Nabi and Najibullah Zadran) in four games at an average of 16.80. This game might be the star of his Nehra-esque World Cup.

#1 Jasprit Bumrah

What reason would you give Jasprit Bumrah to keep out of a list like this? Basic cricketing measures have never applied on India's best and might never do. He just needs one simple fact - Afghanistan's batters, despite their quick development, have a lineage of struggle against high-quality pace.

Bumrah would be more than a headache for their batting order. He hasn't played them much in T20Is but the ODI record speaks for itself: six wickets in two games at 13, with the spell of 4/39 at the 2023 World Cup still fresh in memory.

The West Indian conditions would also suit his variety of skills but he'd have been at #1 even if they didn't.