Afghanistan will be banking on their spinners once again as they look to bounce back against New Zealand in their second Super12 encounter of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup at the MCG in Melbourne on Wednesday. Mohammad Nabi's men didn't enjoy a good start to their Super12 campaign as they lost their opening match to England by five wickets. The batting unit couldn't deliver with a competitive score, as England restricted them to a paltry 112, but the bowlers fought hard and tried their best to make the most out of the contest. Their efforts helped Afghanistan in avoiding a big dip in NRR as they made England toil hard until the penultimate over of the match to chase down the total.
Now Afghanistan will be banking on their bowlers once again as they gear up to tame the Kiwis in this T20 World Cup. While the New Zealand batters have always been excellent players of pace bowling, it's really the Afghan spinners who are going to pose a tough challenge in front of them.
The Kiwis don't have the best record when it comes to batting against spin. It's been just a week since South Africa bundled them out for 98 in their warm-up fixture and the damage there was done by their spin duo of Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi, who picked up five wickets between them while going at just 5.50 runs per over. So, New Zealand need to be very careful while handling Afghanistan's spin trio of Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
Getting into the groove for the @BLACKCAPS encounter _
— Afghanistan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) October 25, 2022
_ _: Snapshots from AfghanAtalan's practice session ahead of their 2nd game at the ICC Men's @T20WorldCup 2022 against New Zealand. #AfghanAtalan | #T20WorldCup2022 | #SuperCola | #AFGvNZ pic.twitter.com/qe8WInhLSu
The Afghan spin trio picked up three wickets between them against England while maintaining a combined economy rate of 5.00. That's an excellent effort while defending a low total and they will be looking to deliver an equally good performance against the Kiwis.
Keeper – Devon Conway, Finn Allen
Batsmen – Kane Williamson, Usman Ghani, Ibrahim Zadran
All-rounders – Mohammad Nabi (C), Mitchell Santner
Bowlers – Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Rashid-Khan (VC), Lockie Ferguson
NZ Probable XI: Finn Allen, Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Glenn Phillips, James Neesham, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
AFG Probable XI: Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Usman Ghani, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmed, Fazalhaq Farooqi
New Zealand Squad: Finn Allen, Devon Conway(w), Kane Williamson(c), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult, Daryl Mitchell, Martin Guptill, Adam Milne, Michael Bracewell
Afghanistan Squad: Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Usman Ghani, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Qais Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Darwish Rasooli, Mohammad Saleem Safi
The New Zealand vs Afghanistan T20 World Cup 2022 contest will be broadcast on Star Sports Network on TV in India and can be live streamedon Hotstar app as well. The match will begin at 1.30 pm IST.
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