Upbeat Afghanistan plots Australia’s downfall

“You assume we are going to come solely to play with Maxwell? Do you assume it will likely be like that?,” requested Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi, as he addressed the media forward of the Champions Trophy group league fixture towards Australia.

He paused for a second, and added with a smile: “Now we have plans for the complete Australian group and I do know that Maxwell performed very well within the 2023 World Cup, however that’s a part of the historical past…”

The final time the 2 groups squared off in a 50-over ICC occasion, in Mumbai in 2023, Glenn Maxwell stole Afghanistan’s thunder with an unbeaten double hundred, and dashed its hopes of constructing it to the knockouts.

On the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday, when the 2 sides meet once more, a spot within the semifinals will likely be on the road.

Afghanistan’s dramatic win over England has made the semifinal qualification from Group B a three-way battle, with two video games to go. Australia has three factors and maintains a greater NRR (0.475) as in comparison with Afghanistan (-0.99), whereas South Africa is on the high of the group at 2.14.

With forecast of rain, Australia will qualify if it wins or if there’s a washout. In case there’s no sport, Afghanistan will want England to beat South Africa by a giant margin to make it to the final 4 stage.

Approaching the again of a historic win towards England, Afghanistan will as soon as once more depend on Ibrahim Zadran, whose record-breaking 177 laid the muse for the group’s success, whereas focus may even be on Azmatullah Omarzai’s all-round expertise.

Australia has been a dominant facet regardless of the absence of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood. With Josh Inglis main the way in which towards England within the opener, the batting will depend on him together with the seasoned Maxwell.

The groups (from): Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (Capt.), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Ikram Alikhil, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Nangyal Kharoti, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Farid Malik, Naveed Zadran.

Australia: Steven Smith (Capt.), Matthew Quick, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Spencer Johnson, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Sean Abbott, Tanveer Sangha.

Match begins at 2.30 pm IST