ABOUT THE MATCH
Afghanistan is going to face West Indies in the first ODI on November 6. It was since the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup that Afghanistan did not play in any 50-over format game. This series will be hosted by West Indies in India at Lucknow’s Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.
Afghanistan faced a string of defeats in the World Cup tournament, losing all nine of their matches, including a defeat in their final-game to West Indies. This tournament might bring them a win as it is led by their star player Rashid Khan.
West Indies too did not perform well in the World Cup as it remained just one place above Afghanistan in the ICC ODI rankings. Since then, they played only one ODI against India but were defeated in that match.
TOSS PREDICTION
In the warm-up match at Lucknow, West Indies won the toss and elected to bat first but it went wrong for the batsmen as the pitch offered more for bowlers than expected. So this time, Rashid is expected to go with the right choice.
PITCH AND CONDITIONS
The match in Lucknow went on in 2018 between India and West Indies where the pitch opted to bat first. But this assumption went completely wrong, as the warm-up game saw the pitch favors bowlers more than the batsmen.
The temperature at Lucknow is around 20 degrees Celsius with very little wind and zero chance of rain.
PROBABLE PLAYING XI OF Afghanistan
Rahmat Shah, Gulbadin Naib, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Asghar Afghan, Karim Janat, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Rashid Khan (c), Yamin Ahmadzai, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
PROBABLE PLAYING XI OF West Indies
Evin Lewis, Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Kieron Pollard (c), Roston Chase, Jason Holder, Keemo Paul, Sheldon Cottrell, Romario Shepherd, Alzarri Joseph
MATCH PREVIEW
Afghanistan
- Afghanistan has complete changed their side after their poor World Cup campaign.
- Rashid Khan will lead the side.
- Mohammad Shahzad and Aftab Alam have both been suspended for Code of Conduct breaches.
- Dawlat Zadran, Hamid Hassan, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Noor Ali Zadran and Samiullah Shinwari, who played in the World Cup, will be missing from the squad.
- Karim Janat, Naveen-ul-Haq, Yamin Ahmadzai, and Sharafuddin Ashraf could be among the players who could be drafted in for this first game if the warm-up match is any indication.
West Indies
- West Indies have also changed their ODI captain since the World Cup.
- Kieron Pollard has been given captaincy in September.
- Brandon King and former USA international Hayden Walsh Jr both earned maiden call-ups after their extraordinary performance in the Caribbean Premier League.
- Romario Shepherd is most likely to debut.
- Chris Gayle will be absent while Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are injured.
PROBABLE WINNING TEAM:
West Indies might be favorites to win as there is more depth in their batting than Afghans and their bowling looks pretty good as well.
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