Will the young gun survive Virat Kohli's comeback?
Rohit, who will also captain the side, will be expected to carry on with his ultra aggressive approach in the powerplay like he showed in the ODI World Cup.
IMAGES from the World Cup match played between England and Afghanistan in Delhi on Sunday.
Their campaign back on track after the humiliating loss in the opener, title holders England would look for a dominating all-round effort against a battered Afghanistan in the World Cup in New Delhi on Sunday, with eyes firmly set on bettering their net run rate.
The West Indies managed to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Shivam Dube smashed a quickfire half-century to power India to a thumping six-wicket victory against Afghanistan in the first T20 International.
Hashmatullah Shahidi was appointed as new Test and ODI captain
Opting to bat after winning the toss, India struggled on a slow pitch and crawled to 224-8 with Virat Kohli (67) and Kedar Jadhav (52) managing half-centuries against a disciplined Afghan attack.
Afghanistan dismissed England for 215 to create one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history.
PHOTOS from the ICC World Cup match between India and Afghanistan played in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Rashid Khan took three wickets as Afghanistan inched closer to victory against Bangladesh on the fourth day, in the one-off Test.
Virat Kohli was found to have breached Article 2.1 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to "Excessive appealing during an International Match", read a statement from the International Cricket Council.
A couple of losses for hosts England has only brightened the 1992 winners' prospects of a semi-final berth.
Smith's player of the match effort of 211 and 82 runs in the two innings has lifted him to 937 rating points, only 10 less than his all-time best aggregate achieved in December 2017.
Afghanistan beat Kenya by seven wickets, at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, to earn automatic qualification to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
Teen sensation Rashid Khan and fellow spinners Mujeeb ur Rahman, Zahir Khan and Hamza Hotak have been named in the 16-member Afghanistan squad for the inaugural one-off Test match against India, starting in Bengaluru, from June 14.
West Indies won the battle of the ICC World Cup's basement dwellers, beating Afghanistan by 23 runs in their final group match at Headingley on Thursday.
Afghanistan kept their hopes alive for a place in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 when they defeated the West Indies by three wickets.
Simmons, who took over the position in December 2017, said he has achieved his target of taking Afghanistan to the World Cup and the time is ripe for him to leave.
Down and out, the two bottom-placed teams know that this will be their best chance to post their first win in the ongoing 50-over showpiece.
IMAGES from the World Cup match played between India and Afghanistan in Southampton on Saturday
'It's a historic moment for them and an opportunity for us to be part of the occasion'
Images from Monday's World Cup match between Bangladesh and Afghanistan, in Southampton.
Afghanistan's former coach Lalchand Rajput believes that they can "upset some of the top teams" in mega tournament, primarily banking on their spinners.
Images from Day 1 of the one-off Test, between India and Afghanistan, in Bengaluru, on Thursday.
Eager to keep their semi-final hopes alive, a desperate Bangladesh will have their work cut out when they take on a spirited Afghanistan in a do-or-die World Cup encounter in Southampton on Monday. England's defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka on Friday breathed air into Bangladesh's hopes of securing a semi-final berth and the 'Tigers' will be keen on making the most of the situation starting with a win over the bottom-placed Afghanistan.
Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi are a spin-bowling unit the equal of any in the world
Afghanistan showed some fight to set a target of 208 runs to win for Australia on Saturday.
There were close matches, acrobatic fielding, some sharp bowling and big runs scored in the round-robin phase. Here are some memorable moments from the World Cup so far
None other than India skipper Virat Kohli acknowledged Afghanistan's rapid rise in the last four years.
Afghanistan mystery spinner Mujeeb Zadran says tricks of the trade learnt from Ravichandran Ashwin in this season's Indian Premier League will come in handy during his team's inaugural Test against India, starting in Bengaluru from Thursday.
All-rounder Imad Wasim's unbeaten 49 guided Pakistan to a thrilling three-wicket victory over minnows Afghanistan in Leeds on Saturday, maintaining their hopes of reaching the World Cup semi-finals.
Images from the England-Afghanistan World Cup match in Manchester, on Tuesday.
'I still don't know why I was ruled unfit when I was fit enough to play'
'Holding on to superstardom is far more difficult than the struggle to get there.'
1983 World Cup winner Krishnamachari Srikkanth believes Virat Kohli's captaincy, and Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal's excellent bowling, were the key to India's narrow victory over Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's controversial campaign, marred by poor on and off-field decisions, has gone from bad to worse. They now face the onerous task of squaring off against a galaxy of world class players, whose performance graph is on the upswing.
Debutants Afghanistan were bowled out twice in a day to lose the one-off Test match against India by an innings and 262 runs, in Bengaluru, on Friday.
Neesham, a batting all-rounder, rocked the Afghanistan innings by his incisive bowling and in the process returned with his career-best figures of 5/31 from his 10 overs. His earlier best was 4/42.
The only problem for India in the Asia Cup so far has been lack of batting time for the likes of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav and Dinesh Karthik.
