The Indian cricket team got back to winning ways after drubbing Afghanistan by 66 runs in their last ICC men’s T20 World Cup match. With their fate still not in their own hands, India will hope to improve their NRR when they face Scotland in yet another must-win contest on Friday.

Scotland, who will be coming after losing to Afghanistan, might allow India to win it big and boost their net run-rate while hoping that other results go their way.

Despite the annihilation of Afghanistan, India’s semifinal prospects remain hanging in the balance thanks to the back-to-back drubbing against Pakistan and New Zealand inside eight days of the tournament proper.

The situation remains bleak as Virat and Co. head into their fourth match in the Super 12 stage.

In group 2, Pakistan have already qualified for the semifinals with four straight wins. New Zealand are favoured to join them in the last-four stage. However, a loss for the Kiwis against either Namibia on Friday or Afghanistan next week will give India a breathing space.

India will, though, look to focus on what is within their control and not get bogged down by the talks around scenarios and eventualities.

While they cannot impact the result of other teams’ group matches, a big win against Scotland is definitely within India’s reach.

After their twin failures against arch-rivals Pakistan and bogey team New Zealand, the Indian batters struck form against an Afghanistan bowling attack considered pretty good by the cricket fraternity.

If they strike big again on Friday, Scotland might be staring down the barrel.

Teams (from):

India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rahul Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravichandran Ashwin

Scotland: Kyle Coetzer (c), Richie Berrington, Dylan Budge, Matthew Cross, Josh Davey, Alasdair Evans, Chris Greaves, Michael Leask, Calum MacLeod, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Hamza Tahir, Craig Wallace, Mark Watt, Bradley Wheal.

The match starts at 7:30 PM IST.