England Vs Afghanistan Match Preview
England and Afghanistan are all set to square off in both teams’ first World Cup game at the Perth Stadium on Saturday.
Jos Buttler will be handling the England’s captaincy responsibility this time as the 50-over World Cup winning skipper Eoin Morgan announced his retirement June this year.
This will be a big challenge ahead of him, but he and his side did in the recently completed Australia series in Australia, the visitors defeated hosts by 2-0 right ahead of the World Cup 2022. The third T20I was called off due to rain. But before that, Buttler already smashed 65 off 41 to guide his side to 112 for 2 in 12-over per side game. Later his bowlers removed 3 Australian batters in quick succession before rain halted the game.
Buttler was awarded with player of the series award for playing match winning knocks in the 3-match series, in which he smashed 150 runs in 3 innings at a strike rate of 174.42.
Liam Livingstone back in team
Another good news for the side is there one more destructive batter Liam Livingstone also recovered from injury showed signs of dominance in the warm-up game against Pakistan.
He was suffering from an ankle injury but now he has confirmed that he has regained full fitness and is fully ready to play team’s first encounter in World Cup on October 22.
All an all team England consist of solid bunch of batters, perfect all-rounders in the form of Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran and Chris Woakes in the squad.
However, a last minute exit of Reece Topley from the tournament due to an injury must a little concern for the side, as he has taken most number of wickets for the English side in this year so far. In place of Topley, the England Cricket Board decided to include Tymal Mills in the squad.
Team Afghanistan
Talking about Afghanistan, the team who has won 14 of its last 24 games, demonstrating the strength of this team. In recent games,
Afghanistan had triumphed over Sri Lanka, Ireland, and Bangladesh, but had lost to India and Pakistan. They will now play against England, a highly capable team. To move themselves into a position of competition, they must do exceptionally well.
Their batting order have strength will no one can neglect. Some of the quality batters include Najibullah Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Ibrahim Zadran, and Usman Ghani, Darwish Rasooli.
The side will be led by the experienced all-rounder Mohammad Nabi. While the most dangerous spinner in the world Rashid Khan is also there in the squad. And Mujeeb is a part too, which together are enough to frighten the opposition.
Pitch Report
It is a bouncy track and after wisely surviving the opening few overs, batsmen can score a lot of runs. It is clear how favourable the course is for batting because the average score while batting first here is 157.
ENG vs AFG Probable Playing XIs
England XI
Jos Buttler (c & wk), Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, Harry Brooks, Ben Stokes, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Tymal Mills
Afghanistan XI
Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Karim Janat, Najibullah Zadran, Md Nabi (C), Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi
England Vs Afghanistan Who will win?
England is one of the strong favourites and is the possible winner of this year’s World Cup. The side is more balanced, both on and off the paper. And will most likely to start their campaign with a win in their first game.
However, they need to be aware of team Afghanistan, as the side hold the ability to turn the tables at any point of the game.
