Chris Silverwood highlighted about his team’s potential and capabilities in the post-match press conference after their abysmal performance against Australia. They were pulverized by the HURRICANE named Marcus Stoinis aka HULK. But they didn’t improve against New Zealand, but went two steps back in their display. Their previous match highlight reel consists of shoddy batting display, reckless fielding and uninterested bowling. Asian champions are going to wrestle with another Asian underdog Afghanistan. It will be the competition of who will be getting eliminated first among these two at Gabba.
Overview:
Afghanistan: Every Afghan player and their fans would be tired by singing the rhymes Rain Rain go away. That has been the story of Afghanistan in this tourney. Their trip to Melbourne was painful and heart breaking, their last two matches were abandoned without a ball being bowled. After their shambolic display against England, they will look to perform better. Afghan batting line-up is inexperienced and they are susceptible against brisk pace and slight swing or seam. Hazaratullah Zazai’s inconsistency is raving their batting unit and it also will affect his fellow opening partner Gurbaz. Gurbaz is carrying their batting for some time. After injured by brutal yorker of Shaheen during the warm-ups, he recovered quickly and it's time to show his impact. Batting is not easy during the PP in this tournament, so batters should play sensibly. Usman Ghani and Ibrahim Zadran might adapt to the conditions quickly to score at brisk pace in middle overs. Watch out for Ibrahim’s solid batting against the SL spinners. Nabi and Najibullah not providing respectable finish off late is a worrying sign. World’s best T20 spinner Rashid Khan’s 4 overs might decide the fate of this match along with dangerous Mujeeb. SL top order struggles badly against left arm pacers in PP which Farooqi proved in recent Asia cup campaign. Boult’s thundering spell vs Sri Lanka should be the template for the Lankan openers. Fareed Ahmed as a left arm seamer is not adding variety and strength in bowling unit. Naveen Ul Haq will be the replacable option who has varieties up his sleeve such as the cutters, wide yorkers and quick bouncers. Bigger boundaries will help spinners lot and running between the wickets will be the catalyst to score big. Afghanistan needs inspiring performances from Rashid and Nabi, both of them who got massive experience of playing lot of BBL games down under.
Injury Update: Hazaratullah Zazai has been ruled out of T20 World Cup 2022 after abdominal and kidney issues and is replaced by Gulbadin Naib in the 15-man squad.
Sri Lanka: Asian Champions huffed and puffed and qualified for Super 12 of T20 World Cup 2022 and now are struggling badly. Raved by injuries and inconsistency, Sri Lanka is in the brink of elimination and same applies for Afghanistan too. Entire SL team needs a whip in the back for their school boyish fielding. Literally gave 20+ extra runs in last 2 matches. Also they are struggling for clean gathering which explains their mental state. Better if they revisit their recent awe-inspiring performances. Nissanka should take the baton and be the engine for their batting unit. The 24 year old youngster got all aspects to carry this unit for next decade and most importantly he scored some valuable runs against series vs Australia few months back down under. Kusal Mendis technique against pace is a worrying sign and Farooqi will test him in powerplay. Bhanuka Rajapaksha and Charith Asalanka are not replicating their immense potential in this tourney, especially Rajapaksha, who got amazing hitting skills vs both pace and spin. It’s time to buckle up and step up to the occasion. Dhananjaya De Silva needs to bat longer with great intent. As a 6th bowler, he is doing his job with more than perfection in this tournament. Dhananjaya de Silva has taken 10 wickets in the tournament so far, while Mahesh Theekshana has taken 9 wickets to his name. Hasaranga is going through some tough time right now and he needs to bowl in better lengths. He is bowling tad short than he usually bowls and also bowling too many googlies. He again needs to revisit his drawing room and re-sketch his plans. Hasaranga and Bhanuka are the high impact X factor players for Sri Lanka. If both starts to fire, then SL will be a force to reckon with . Theekshana bowling well in PP and middle overs, but leaking too many in slog overs. Their pace unit is totally dismantled by injuries. Lahiru Kumara is not even proving his worth and leaking a lot. Chamika Karunaratne has been inconsistent in his bowling but he adds balance to this team with his skillset. Shanaka the skipper is playing better than another struggling captain Temba Bavuma. Too many question marks around his spot and he should fix it now. His electric fielding will motivate his own unit and Kasun Rajitha should carry his last match’s form.
Scenario in Group 1: If Sri Lanka win their last two games, New Zealand lose their last two, and Australia beat Ireland but lose to Afghanistan, then Sri Lanka will top group 1 with six points. Like Sri Lanka, Afghanistan can also top the group - on six points - if they win both their games and if New Zealand lose both of theirs. But rain is playing spoil sport for them.
Probable playing XI:
Afghanistan: Darwish Rasooli / Gulbadin Naib, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Usman Ghani, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman , Fareed Ahmed /Naveen Ul Haq , Fazal Haq Farooqi
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis , Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Bhanuka Rajapaksha, Dasun Shanaka, Chamika Karunaratne, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasum Rajitha , Lahiru Kumara / Pramod Madushan
Pitch and weather report:
Partly cloudy and chances of thunderstorm most likely during the evening.
If rain arrives on Monday evening, the pitch might help pacers initially. In last match, pitch was effective for slew of variations and batters should target straight boundaries instead of targeting square.
Date: Tuesday, November 01, 2022
Time: 09:30 AM IST and 14:00 local time
Venue: The Gabba, Brisbane
Live Streaming:Star Sports Network and Disney+ Hotstar
Facts & Milestones:
- Nissanka needs 62 more runs to reach 1000 T20I runs.
- Mujeeb needs 4 more wickets to reach 50 T20I wickets.
- Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have faced each other in 3 matches in T20I. Out of these 3 games, Sri Lanka have won 2 whereas Afghanistan have come out victorious on 1 occasion. Only once they faced each other in T20I WC - during 2016 T20 WC in which Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets.
Dream 11 Team:
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