Australia enters its final Super 12 encounter against Afghanistan hoping to increase their net run rate and pull off an upset at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
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Overview
Australia, the current T20 World Cup champion, is on the verge of bowing out of the competition when they take on Afghanistan at Adelaide Oval on Friday.
The host country now holds third place in Group 1 behind New Zealand and England thanks to a significantly lower net run rate. The goal for Aaron Finch’s team going into Friday’s game will be to win, and win big, in order to erase this deficit.
Nevertheless, despite their best efforts, Australia’s future is out of their hands, as the outcome of Saturday’s encounter between England and Sri Lanka will determine who advances from their group to the knockout stage.
The hosts will hope that captain Aaron Finch can deliver after leading his team to a comfortable 42-run victory over Ireland and showing signs of form by winning 63 of 44 to earn player of the match honors.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, travels to Adelaide with nothing to play for but pride. The Group 1 underachievers are now last in the standings after two losses and two games that were postponed due to rain.
Rashid Khan and company will need their hitters to step up to the plate if Afghanistan is to pull off an upset. Afghanistan can’t rely solely on their bowlers to lead them to success because they haven’t yet developed as a batting side, especially when going up against Australia’s strong attack.
The two sides had only previously faced each other three times in ODIs, with Australia winning each of those games. Friday’s match will be the first T20I match between the two teams.
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Expected starting lineup
Australia
Matthew Wade (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, and Matthew Wade
Afghanistan
Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmad Malik, and Fazalhaq Farooqi are among the players who can score: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Usman Ghani, Najibullah Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, and Mohammad Nabi (c).
