Afghanistan vs West Indies, 2019: 3-match T20I series – Statistical Preview

After a 0-3 series defeat in the ODI series, the Afghanistan team now gears up for the 3-match T20I series against the West Indies starting on Thursday. The Afghans are having horrid time over the last six months as they lost all the 12 ODI matches they played since the start of 2019 CWC. Even their record winning streak came to an end in this period only. On the other hand, West Indies have been quite poor in T20Is ever since the 2016 WT20 and now hope to see a change of fortunes under new skipper Pollard.

All the key stats and numbers ahead of the 3-match T20I series to be hosted by Lucknow:

0.235 – West Indies’ win-loss ratio of 0.235 in the T20I format across the last two years is the worst for any team. (Min: 10 matches) The Caribbean team won only four of the 22 T20Is they played since the start of November 2017 and lost in 17 of them.

3-1 – West Indies lead the head to head record in the T20I format against Afghanistan by 3-1. The Afghans won the first-ever T20I meet during the 2016 WT20 while the Windies team won all the matches in the 3-match home series played in 2017.

4 – Afghanistan won each of their last four bilateral T20I series that too by winning all games in the series – 2-0 vs Zimbabwe in 2018, 3-0 vs Bangladesh in 2018, 2-0 vs Ireland in 2018 and 3-0 vs Ireland in 2019. Only Pakistan (8) and India (6) won more consecutive T20I series than Afghanistan.

6 – West Indies lost all the six T20Is they played in 2019 – vs England by 0-3 margin and vs India by 0-3 margin. This is their longest losing streak in the T20I format.

10 – Afghanistan won each of their last ten T20I matches on Indian soil; a streak that began with a 6-run win against West Indies during the 2016 WT20. Overall, the Afghans won 13 out of the 16 T20Is they played in India. They played three bilateral T20I series in this country and won all the three by 3-0 margin.

39 – Rashid Khan has taken 39 wickets in 16 T20Is he played on Indian soil. Only Tim Southee (41 in NZ) has taken more T20I wickets in a country than Rashid. The leg-spinner claimed the 39 wickets at an average of 9.23 and a strike rate of 9.3.

1249 – Kieron Pollard has scored 1249 runs in the Twenty20 format in 2019; the most by him in a calendar year. Pollard amassed the 1249 runs from 53 innings at an average of 35.68. Only Babar Azam (1607) and AB de Villiers (1265) have scored more T20 runs than Pollard.