Afghanistan Captain Mohammad Nabi won the toss and opted to field first in their final Super 12 encounter of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup against Australia in Adelaide on Friday.
Afghanistan are already out of the semifinal race but this is a very important match for Australia as they not only need to win it but also need to do it by a big margin to stay in contention for the semi-final. But Australia have lost some key players to injuries going into this contest.
Skipper Aaron Finch is ruled out with a hamstring injury and so is Tim David. Matthew Wade has replaced Finch as the captain. Mitchell Starc isn’t playing this match either. Steve Smith, Cameron Green and Kane Richardson have replaced them for this match.
Playing XIs
Afghanistan: 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: Cameron Green, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade(w/c), Pat Cummins, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
What the Captains said
Matthew Wade: 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.
Mohammad Nabi: 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. Rashid is right to go. This is his home ground, hope he performs well. Hopefully we finish on a good note.
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