Afghan captain Mohammad Nabi invited Australia to bat in their final Super-12 encounter in the ongoing T20 World Cup.
It will be the first time that Australia and Afghnaistan will meet in the shorter format of the game. The Aussie team have been dealt a huge blow with Aaron Finch missing out on the playing eleven due to an injury. Matthew Wade will be captaining the side in his absence.
They have also been forced to bring in Steve Smith in place of Tim David who has been ruled out due to an injury. Mitchell Starc has been dropped and Kane Richardson has been roped into the playing eleven.
Defending champions Australia are in an unsafe territory with New Zealand securing a win over Ireland. Australia would need to win this match to have a crack at the semi-final berth.
Afghanistan will look to get their first win of the T20 World Cup under their belt and end their campaign on a high. They could very well play party spoilers for the Aussie side, who are looking to squeeze through to the semi-finals.
Adelaide is like a home ground for Rashid Khan who plays cricket for the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League and could be the game-changer for Afghanistan.
“We’ll try our best (to upset Australia’s party). The wicket is a bit slow, we saw the first game and we’ll try our best. He (Rashid Khan) is right to go. This is his home ground, hope he performs well today. Wasn’t a good tournament for us. After the first game, we had two games washed out. We didn’t play for 10 days and it wasn’t a good performance against Sri Lanka. Hopefully, we finish on a good note,” Mohammad Nabi said after winning the toss.
Stand-in captain Wade reflected on the team’s current situation in Group 1 of the Super 12 and informed about the forced changes that the team had to make.
“We would have probably done the same. Finch is out, so is Tim David. Starc makes way for Kane Richardson. Green and Smith are in. It’d have been nice if we hadn’t put ourselves in these positions, we’ve been here before. They (Afghanistan) are a terrific team. We got to secure a win first, but if an opportunity comes where we can push the pace a bit we’ll try to do that. Otherwise, we got to try and win,” Matthew Wade said during the toss.
Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Usman Ghani, Ibrahim Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Darwish Rasooli, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi(c), Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Australia (Playing XI): Cameron Green, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade(w/c), Pat Cummins, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, and Josh Hazlewood (ANI)
