ICC World Cup 2019 – Match 42: AFG vs WI – Afghanistan Predicted Playing XI

Afghanistan’s last World Cup win came over four years and 11 games ago in the mega event. After beating Scotland by 1 wicket in 2015 edition, the team is yet to taste any kind of success in the 50-over tournament. Thus far in this World Cup, the team has lost 8 games on the trot. While they did manage to get close to a win on a few occasions, they couldn’t really punch above their weights.

As they try to put an end to this losing streak, the Afghans will be facing the Windies in their next game. The Caribbean team will surely look to come down hard at them. However, the focus for Afghanistan will be to give an opportunity to everyone in the squad for this final match of theirs.

Here is the Predicted Playing XI for Afghanistan

Openers (Rahmat Shah, Gulbadin Naib (c))

Just getting off to good starts won’t be sufficient for Rahmat Shah. Being the opener, he’s got to take more responsibility and come up with better performances. In the last two games, he had troubles against left-arm spin and got out to Shakib Al Hasan and Imad Wasim. It won’t be any different this time either as Windies will look to test him against Fabian Allen. Thus, he has got to reassess the weak links and deal better with it this time.

Gulbadin Naib was partly responsible for the loss against Pakistan. As a captain, he made some questionable moves which didn’t really pay off. While he couldn’t get a big score with the bat, he didn’t have a great time with the ball either. Hence, he’s got to make up for his mistakes and possibly bring out a match-winning performance against Windies.

Middle Order (Hashmatullah Shahidi, Ikram Ali Khil (wk), Asghar Afghan, Najibullah Zadran)

Hashmatullah Shahidi got out for a golden duck in the last game. It won’t be easy for him this time either facing the Windies quicks and has got to be careful early on in the innings. Ikram Ali Khil got a promotion in the batting order in the last outing but Afghanistan might not want to do it again. He consumed way too many balls and scored at a strike rate of just 36 which isn’t acceptable in the modern-day standards.

Thus, he is likely to go back to his usual position down the order. Asghar Afghan has got off to a few good starts in the tournament. He seems to have changed his approach and is looking to score at a better pace than he used to do earlier. But it is important for the former skipper to get a big score that will take the game away from the opposition as his team has got enough bowling resources to do the rest of the job. The same thing applies to Najibullah Zadran as well who have seemed to be in great touch throughout.

All Rounders (Mohammad Nabi, Samiullah Shinwari, Rashid Khan)

Mohammad Nabi, with the bat, has looked to be a slight worry. He hasn’t stood up to the occasion on many instances which has let his team down. While Nabi has done an excellent job with the ball, he needs to step up with the bat as well which completely changes the dynamics of the way his side will perform.

Afghanistan must send Samiullah Shinwari to bat up the order. In whatever opportunities that he’s got so far, he did a great job and must continue with the good work in the last league game as well. It hasn’t been quite the tournament Rashid Khan would have hoped for. He looked off-colour and hasn’t picked as many wickets. The leg-spinner will look to finish the tournament on a high.

Bowlers (Sayed Shirzad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman)

With Hamid Hassan retiring from international cricket, Afghanistan should make a forced change for this match. Dawlat Zadran and Sayed Shirzad will be in the reckoning for this match. Since the latter hasn’t played a game in the tournament as yet, he might be considered. Mujeeb Ur Rahman is doing a good job and will hold onto his place in the team. He picked up two wickets in the last match and was quite economical.