Afghanistan vs Ireland, 2020: 3-match T20I series – Statistical Preview

Afghanistan will be facing off Ireland in a 3-match T20I series starting on Friday at the Greater Noida Sports Complex. Though Afghanistan continued its struggle from the last year’s World Cup in the ODI format, their success in the T20Is remained the same. Afghanistan recently shared the T20I Tri-series with Bangladesh where they lost a couple of matches but bounced back with a 2-1 series victory over West Indies. On the other hand, the Irish team managed to drew their series in the Caribbean earlier this year.

All the key stats and numbers ahead of the 3-match T20I series between Afghanistan and Ireland:

0/9 – Ireland has not won any T20I match they played on Indian soil. They played nine T20Is in India thus far losing in eight of them while another game ended in a washout after 8 overs of first innings. Ireland’s T20I record against Afghanistan in India reads 0-6.

3-0 – Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground hosted three T20Is thus far; all during the 3-match T20I series between Afghanistan and Ireland. The Afghan team won all the three matches during that series to complete a whitewash.

9/23 – Paul Stirling has scored nine fifties in the T20I format across 23 matches he played since the start of 2019. Stirling scored 871 runs at an average of 41.47 across those 23 T20I games.

10 – Afghanistan won all the 10 matches in the T20I format they played against Ireland since the start of 2017. Ireland’s last T20I win over Afghanistan came way back in the 2013 WT20 Qualifier Final. Afghanistan won all the three bilateral T20I series against the Irish team.

29 – Rashid Khan has claimed 29 wickets in his T20I career against Ireland; the most T20I wickets by any player against an opponent in Men’s cricket. He has picked those 29 wickets across 10 T20Is only with two 4-fers and two 5-wicket hauls. Rashid has an impeccable bowling average of 7.2 over the Irish team.

90 – Hazratullah Zazai has a batting average of 90 in the T20I format against Ireland. He scored 360 runs across 5 T20Is which includes a career-best knock of 162* and two fifties. Zazai smashed 31 fours and 31 sixes against the Irish team in those five matches.

291 – Rashid Khan needs nine more wickets to complete 300 wickets in the Twenty20 format. Rashid will be the 8th player and the youngest to reach the milestone when he picks those nine wickets.

985 – Runs Samiullah Shinwari has aggregated in his T20I career thus far. He needs 15 more runs to become the 4th player with 1000 T20I runs for Afghanistan. Najibullah Zadran is also nearing this milestone having scored 918 T20I runs thus far.