Afghanistan is set to face West Indies in its 2nd warmup match prior to the start of their first match in Super 12s vs B1 on Oct 25. The match is set to played in ICCA Oval 1, Dubai this evening at 6:00 local time.
Afghanistan lost its first warmup match to South Africa as they were reduced to only 104/8 in their 20 overs and losing the match by 41 runs. Although Afghanistan’s bowling attack started well, with Nabi and Mujeeb turning things around the South African batsmen but their fast bowlers were targeted which caused to them to leak at least 30 more runs. The batters were also restricted & kept to feel the heat as the African Spin trio ruled the game and defeated Afghanistan comprehensively.
The expectations from the Afghans, who have played very good cricket over the last two years, would be more as they will look to sort things out quickly and come back strongly to get their confidence back before going to start their official journey at the World Cup.
Afghanistan will look to strengthen their batting by sorting the batting order. Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Mohammad Shahzad and Hazratullah Zazai are the men who have had some impressive performances over the last two years for National team and in franchise cricket. If Afghanistan are to prove on their batting, they will need two of these batters to do well and at least one other batter to support them. A middle order which includes Captain Mohammad Nabi, Najeebullah Zadran and Asghar Afghan to post a big score.
In bowling department, Mohammad Nabi will look to bowl Rashid Khan today to observe where and how to utilize him at the main event, further Rashid will need to assess the conditions and somehow makes himself mentally ready to go into the mega event. Hamid Hassan was the other bowler who did not complete his full quota and injured his finger, he will also be looking to bowl some overs and mark his presence just before the official journey begins for Afghan Atalan.
Mohammad Nabi will also be looking to test the medium pace of Karim Jannat in the middle overs as an additional seam bowling option in the line-up, while one of Fareed or Gulbadin Naib will also be kept in check to test their medium fast bowling abilities before going to the first match against B1 on Oct 25.
Said Rahman Ahmadzai, Feilding coach of the National U19 team was asked to express his expert view on today’s warmup match against WI. He said that it’s an important match before the main event for Afghanistan and must be considered as the final opportunity to make the best XI for the first match.
“The batters focused on big hitting in the first inning which was not right” said Ahmadzai. He believes that the 2nd warmup match is the opportunity for Afghanistan to prepare their final and best XI and sort out the batting order. He added: “the mistakes that we made in the first match must not be repeated, good batting, bowling and fielding must be done which is very important for the team’s performance”
Ahmadzai also pointed out our spin bowling attack and said that it will prove worthy in these conditions. “UAE pitches are spin bowling friendly; the ball is not coming good on the bat and sometimes the wickets make it difficult for the batsmen to read the ball well”. He also added that around 150 runs are defendable score in these conditions but while bowling first, the team must restrict the opposition to around 130 runs to be able to chase the target down.
Afghanistan defeated West Indies 2-1 in a 3-match T20I series in Lucknow two years ago and will be mentally ready going into this match. It’s needed for Afghanistan to win this match and boost their confidence ahead of their first outing at the main event.