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Kagiso Rabada has been ruled out of the second India vs South Africa Test match, in Guwahati from Saturday, after not recovering sufficiently from the rib bone stress injury that had kept him out of the opening Test of the series in Kolkata.”The injury has been closely monitored by the Proteas medical team, and due to ongoing discomfort in the affected area, Rabada has been withdrawn from the remainder of the tour,” Cricket South Africa said in a statement on Friday morning, a day off from the start of the game. “He will continue the initial phase of his four-week rehabilitation program with the Proteas medical team before returning to South Africa at the conclusion of the second Test.”This will put him out of the white-ball series in India that will follow the Tests.As reported by ESPNcricinfo, Rabada had not bowled since sustaining the injury in training last Tuesday in Kolkata and did not train on Wednesday in Guwahati.Simon Harmer, with an eight-wicket match haul, was South Africa’s bowling star in Kolkata, and they had Keshav Maharaj as the second spinner there with Marco Jansen the fast-bowling frontman and Wiaan Mulder and Corbin Bosch chipping in. Mulder, though, bowled just five overs in the Test, and while Bosch bowled more, he had just the one wicket – of Rishabh Pant in the first innings – to show for his efforts. Bosch made a valuable contribution of 25 runs from No. 9 in South Africa’s second innings, though.Lungi Ngidi is the other fast bowler in South Africa’s line-up.

Zimbabwe have replaced Afghanistan in Pakistan’s upcoming triangular T20I series at home next month. The series, which will be played from November 17 to 29 in Lahore and Rawalpindi, will also feature Sri Lanka.Earlier today, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) announced its withdrawal from the tri-series following the death of three local cricketers in what it alleged was a cross-border attack in the Urgun district of the country.In a post on X, the ACB claimed that several lives had been lost in the attack, including three local cricketers who had been returning home after playing a “friendly” match in Sharana, the capital of Paktika province. “The ACB considers this a great loss for Afghanistan’s sports community, its athletes, and the cricketing family,” it said in a statement.Describing the incident as “tragic”, the ACB said “as a gesture of respect to the victims” it had “decided to withdraw from participating in the upcoming Tri-Nation T20I Series.” The ICC and the BCCI joined the ACB in mourning the loss of life of the cricketers.Related

• ICC, BCCI express 'solidarity' with Afghanistan after withdrawal from Pakistan tri-series

The PCB has not made any official comment on the situation following Afghanistan’s statement, but told ESPNcricinfo the tri-series would go ahead as scheduled, with Afghanistan replaced by another side. In the statement announcing Zimbabwe’s participation, the PCB merely said it had been notified earlier of “Afghanistan’s inability” to participate in the tri-series.The series will begin with Zimbabwe taking on hosts Pakistan in Rawalpindi before playing against Sri Lanka at the same venue two days later. All remaining games will be played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Big picture

As expected, the group stage of this Asia Cup ends with a high-stakes clash in Group B, and a dead rubber in Group A. India and Oman contest this dead rubber, and their aims are wildly different.For India, this could be about getting some of their bowlers match time, and some of their middle- and lower-order batters crease time, ahead of the Super Four stage. Four members of their squad are yet to play a match, and three members of their top eight have played both their matches so far but are yet to face a ball.For Oman, this is their last match against a Full Member team before they host a tournament of serious consequence next month – the T20 World Cup Asia & East-Asia-Pacific Regional Qualifier. They are one of nine teams taking part in that tournament, of whom three will make it to next year’s T20 World Cup. Oman will want to be one of those three teams, and learnings from this Asia Cup, and this final game against India, could well help them in that quest.Related

• Fun and banter but no drop in intensity at India training

• Oman's Sufyan Mehmood is living his dream after defying his family

Form guide

India WWWWL (last five T20Is, most recent first)
Oman LLLLL

In the spotlight

India have retained Sanju Samson as their wicketkeeper ahead of Jitesh Sharma, trusting him to play an unfamiliar role in the middle order. He has not had a chance to play that role yet in this tournament, though, with DNBs against both UAE and Pakistan. Will he get a chance to bat against Oman?He’s returned an economy rate of just 4.71 through this Asia Cup, and he’s been even more frugal in the powerplay, going at just 3.50 across four overs. Shakeel Ahmed has had an excellent tournament so far, but now he’s set to face a real pressure test: will Oman continue to use their left-arm spinner with the new ball, with the marauding, left-handed Abhishek Sharma waiting at the top of India’s line-up?

Team news

India have played just the one frontline fast bowler in their two matches so far, but the shift from Dubai to slightly less spin-friendly conditions in Abu Dhabi, and the context of this dead rubber, could cause them to change their strategy. In any case, Jasprit Bumrah could be rested, and either one or both of Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana could get a look-in. With the middle-order batters not having got much of a chance in the middle so far, India might find it a little harder to give Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma a game.India (probable): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Sanju Samson (wk), 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Kuldeep Yadav/Varun Chakravarthy2:27

Bangar: India unlikely to tinker with in-form top order

While India played the same XI in their first two games, Oman have used 14 players across theirs. Given how their tournament has panned out so far, with batting collapses against both Pakistan and UAE, it’s hard to predict who stays in and who goes out of their XI.Oman (probable): 1 Jatinder Singh (capt), 2 Aamir Kaleem, 3 Hammad Mirza, 4 Wasim Ali, 5 Aryan Bisht, 6 Vinayak Shukla (wk), 7 Jiten Ramamnandi, 8 Shah Faisal, 9 Shakeel Ahmed, 10 Hassnain Shah, 11 Samay Shrivastava

Pitch and conditions

Recent history suggests that the pitches in Abu Dhabi don’t have quite as much help for spin as those in Dubai do. Since the start of 2023, spinners have averaged below 20 in Dubai and gone at less than 6.5 per over in T20Is; they’ve averaged over 38 in Abu Dhabi and conceded more than 7.5 per over. The two teams’ selections could well reflect this.

Stats and trivia

• This is the first meeting between India and Oman in any format.
• Abhishek (195.40) currently has the best strike rate of any batter with at least 500 T20I runs.
• Arshdeep is India’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is. He currently has 99 in 63 matches. If he remains on the bench through this tournament, Hardik Pandya (95) and Jasprit Bumrah (92) have a chance of catching up with or going past him.

Quotes

“I feel these wickets are perfect for spinners. Because you get bounce and the zip. If you compare to the Champions Trophy, the wickets [then] were very slow and you had to put a lot of revs on the ball to get the extra bounce and the pace as well. Those tracks, it was difficult for a batter to score runs. For wristspinners, to get bounce and turn on those wickets was tough.”

David Willey and Rehan Ahmed spearheaded a superb display from Trent Rockets as they made short work of Manchester Originals and moved level on points with Oval Invincibles at the top of the table.Willey, the Rockets’ captain, was in inspired form at Trent Bridge, bowling 20 of the first 30 deliveries in the Originals’ innings and returning figures of 3 for 11, his best in the Hundred, as the visitors made just 98 for 8 from their 100 balls.Ben McKinney was Willey’s first victim, trapped lbw for a duck, before dangerman Jos Buttler and Rachin Ravindra nicked behind to consecutive deliveries from the left-armer as the Originals slipped to 26 for 3.Rehan claimed the key wicket of Heinrich Klaasen when the South African holed out to Sam Hain at long-on for 9 and two stunning catches in the space of two deliveries reduced the visitors to 51 for 6: Joe Root taking a screamer off Sam Cook to send Matty Hurst on his way and Rehan picked up his second when George Linde judged a boundary catch to perfection to dismiss captain Phil Salt for 19.David Willey celebrates trapping Ben McKinney lbw•Nathan Stirk/ECB via Getty Images

It took a late-order cameo from Lewis Gregory, who struck two sixes in his unbeaten 33 from 21 against his old side, to give the total some kind of respectability but it never looked like being enough against a Rockets outfit that is firing on all cylinders.Sonny Baker, called up to England’s white-ball squads on Friday, made an early breakthrough when he had Root caught behind, and Ravindra trapped Tom Banton lbw on the reverse-sweep to leave the Rockets 22 for 2 but Rehan showed off his silky strokeplay in making an unbeaten 45 from 35.Max Holden fell to Josh Tongue via a one-handed grab from Salt but Rehan and Tom Moores (22 not out) ensured a comprehensive win, the hosts reaching their target with 26 balls to spare to register a fourth win in five and leave them behind the Invincibles on net run-rate. Those two teams play against one another on Thursday night at The Oval.”We talked about intent a lot at the start of the competition and Rehan epitomises that,” Willey said. “He’s a tricky one to bowl at. You’re not quite sure what he’s going to do. When it comes off like it did tonight he can take the game away from the opposition.”