Afghanistan recently had a wonderful home series in Dubai against the touring West Indies side, where they claimed the 2-1 series victory. Under the captaincy of Rashid Khan, they reached the semifinal of the previous World Cup in the Caribbean and the United States of America before losing the penultimate clash to South Africa. For the T20 World Cup 2026,they hope to go two steps further. 

India has been a second home to Afghanistan players, who are well-experienced with the country due to playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for a long time. The crowd loves them, with the bowlers and batters getting used to the conditions and the surface, which is always an advantage for these players.

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Before the World Cup, Afghanistan had decided to appoint the former wicket-keeper batter and their current mentor of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Dinesh Karthik, in that same role of mentorship for the World Cup 2026.

Dinesh Karthik set to be named as Afghanistan’s mentor for T20 World Cup 2026

Afghanistan is scheduled to play their first warm-up clash of the event against Scotland at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) before staying at the same venue for their second practice clash against West Indies, which will be a rematch from the last bilateral series. Karthik will be a valuable member of the side with his knowledge of the condition.

Dinesh karthik to be announced as mentor of Afghanistan team for T20I WC 2026. pic.twitter.com/vCNmNL85GA

— ACB Xtra (@acb_190) February 2, 2026

Afghanistan will begin its campaign against New Zealand on February 08 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. They will, then, lock horns with South Africa three days later at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. It will be a morning game, bringing their pacers more into the fixture.

On February 16, Afghanistan will head to the Arun Jaitley Stadium for the third group-stage encounter against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before finishing that part with the last game against Canada on February 16 in Chennai. They are capable of beating all of these four sides if they can post a decent score on the board and let the spinners work in the middle overs.