After enduring tough defeats in their previous two encounters, Babar Azam-led Pakistan, looking to return to winning ways, won the toss and elected to bat first against Afghanistan in Match 22 of ICC World Cup 2023 in Chennai, India.

Afghanistan too head into the contest on the back of a 149-run mauling against New Zealand and will be looking for their second win in the tournament.

Pakistan appear as favourites on paper, however, the Chepauk track, which has a reputation of assisting the spinners, will definitely raise Afghanistan’s hope. The team has a promising spin line-up with Rashid Khan leading the department. He is assisted by Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi in this department. 

However, the problem for Afghanistan has been their batting, which has been inconsistent.

Pakistan, too, however, have problems of their own. Despite assembling a good squad, the unit has failed to click and managed win against smaller opponents such as the Netherlands, and Sri Lanka. The team then endured a dramatic collapse against India and failed to put a fight against Australia. 

Pakistan will hope for a strong show against Afghanistan. Although a defeat won’t hurt much, but they’ll look to grab the valuable two points and give others a strong competition in the race for semifinals.

Afghanistan Playing XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ikram Alikhil(w), Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad, Riaz Hassan, Abdul Rahman, Najibullah Zadran

Pakistan Playing XI: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Agha Salman

Source - Hindustan Times

- Agencies