India's Mahendra Singh Dhoni (R) is watched by Afghanistan's Ikram Ali Khil as he plays a shot during the 2019 Cricket World Cup group stage match between India and Afghanistan at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, southern England, on June 22, 2019 (AFP)

Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first, but barring the skipper himself, no other India batsman looked comfortable on a sluggish pitch which suited the Afghanistan spinners.

MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav were involved in a rather slow partnership in the middle overs and this did not help India’s cause as it allowed Afghanistan to control the game even in the final 10 overs of the innings.

Former Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar said that he was not too happy with the way Dhoni and Jadhav played in the middle overs as they never showed any intent to attack the spinners.

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“I felt slightly disappointed, it could have been much better. I was also not happy with the partnership between Kedar and Dhoni, it was very slow. We batted 34 overs of spin bowling and scored 119 runs. This was one area where we didn’t look comfortable at all. There was no positive intent,” Sachin told India Today.

“There were more than 2-3 dot balls. After Virat got out in the 38th over and till the 45th over we hadn’t scored many runs. There were not enough outings for the middle order batsmen till now and that put pressure on them. But the intent could have been much better by the middle order batsmen,” he further added.

India eventually managed to post 224 for 8 in 50 overs with captain Virat Kohli top-scoring with 67 runs while Jadhav contributed with 52.