All of these require just the smallest amount of common sense and a bit of knowledge about the game to make sense of, but that somehow seemingly appears hard to come by in the thread.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that India had struggled so badly while batting first and posting sub par scores.
If the implication is that the Afghans bowled first for India to receive a boost to their nrr, then what explains India choosing to bowl first in their very next game when they actually won the toss. I mean, I'm not really talking nuclear science here, but somehow common sense doesn't appear common these days.
Mujeeb was injured, not dropped. He was also coincidentally injured in the game against Namibia.
Nabi is an off spin bowler whose stock delivery turns into the hitting arc of the right hander. Common sense indicates you don't bowl an offie to right handers at the crease, especially when the pitch didn't support spin and was flat like it was during that match. All this requires only the slightest amount of acquaintance with the technical aspects of the game.
Look, you can choose what you want to believe, I'm not here to convince you otherwise. But the conspiracy theories were so embarrassing and devoid of logic that I didn't even bother for a long time. I mean, I came across a popular conspiracy theory that Kohli had whispered to Nabi at the toss to instruct him to bowl first after he had lost the toss. This one was so popular that even the anchor of Pak channel discussed the footage with Wasim and Waqar on live tv. I mean, how stupid can people be. If the BCCI really fixed the match with the Afghans behind the doors, wouldn't it have been predecided on what Afghanistan should do if they won the toss and why would Kohli whisper to Nabi in front of the whole world with a thousand cameras zooming in on them.
Bottomline is that India played terribly against Pakistan and New Zealand and didn't deserve to qualify on the basis of those two terrible performances. But them not doing so doesn't make them such a terrible team that they need to fix to win games against Afghans on a flat wicket.
