Lucknow, June 17 (IANS) Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bowl against India in the second ODI of the three-match series here at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.

The hosts have handed Prince Yadav a debut cap, making him the third debutant in this series after Harsh Dubey and Gurnoor Brar, who earned their caps in the 1st ODI. Nitish Kumar Reddy, meanwhile, was unavailable for selection due to quad issues.

The series began with India drawing first blood in Dharamsala, sealing a convincing seven-wicket victory in a rain-shortened 25-overs-a-side contest. With several senior players unavailable, the opening ODI also served as an important audition for India’s emerging talent, who grabbed the opportunity and gave the hosts an early 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Winning the toss, Afghan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said, “Wicket looks fresh. I think it’ll be spinning in the first innings. In the last game, we played really well, we missed the partnerships. We had one partnership and then threw away our wickets. Hopefully we come back stronger. Our boys have a lot of passion of cricket. We have three changes. Nabi is sick, Azmat got injured and Zia Ur Rahman Sharifi isn’t playing. Bilal, Darwish Rasooli and one more.”

Meanwhile, India captain Shubman Gill said, “We’d have bowled as well as we’re forced to play with five bowlers. All about being in difficult situations and being able to chase down big scores and how we can be clinical with out bowling. Three changes. Prince makes his debut. We’ve got Kuldeep and Jaiswal in.”

Playing XIs:

India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav

Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Darwish Rasooli, Rashid Khan, Nangeyalia Kharoti, AM Ghazanfar, Mohammad Saleem Safi, Bilal Sami