FANTASY
Follow UsWith two wins from two games, Pakistan are at the top of the Group 2 table and well placed to end there with three comparatively weaker teams waiting in the wings. On the other hand, Afghanistan have sent shockwaves with a 130-run win over Scotland, which is in line with their batting improvement in the last year or so. As they are slated to take on their neighbors on Friday, they will also want to take a step further towards their ambition of making it to the semi-finals.
Head to Head
Pakistan and Afghanistan have met each other only once in T20Is in which Pakistan won by 6 wickets with 1 ball remaining. Incidentally, the game was played in UAE as well.
Ground Details and Team Combination
In the last three years, the average first innings score has been 150 with teams batting first winning 61.9%. 155 is the highest score that has been chased in this period and pacers have had a stronghold by accounting for 63.26% wickets. Historically, spinners have had an economy rate of 6.9 - the only count where they better the pacers. However, the difference is minuscule, which will keep the Afghanistan spinners interested.
Suggested Team
While you could go for the above team, you also have the option of choosing your own team from Cricket.com’s Fantasy Research Centre. You can use this tool to build your team with the help of algorithms. Based on your preferences, the platform will guide you to create the ideal fantasy XI.
Captain
Since being asked to open the innings in late 2020, what Rizwan has achieved is beyond human understanding. Since then, he has scored close to 1000 runs at an average of 83 and has scored at an SR of nearly 140 at the top. Mohammad Rizwan will become the fastest to score 1000 runs as an opener if he manages to score 8 runs in this encounter. Having him as the captain is a no-brainer.
Our Criclytics Player Projections predict Rizwan to score 30-44 runs
X-Factors
Hazratullah Zazai has an SR of 155 which is the highest for any Afghanistan batter with a minimum of 100 runs in T20Is. Among 46 openers from the top 10 teams to have scored 500+ runs in T20Is, Zazai has the 3rd highest SR and the 4th best average. It easily tells about his impact and thus it is prudent that we have him on the team.
Our Criclytics Player Projections predict Zazai to score 28-42 runs
There were more than 6000 different players to have played T20s post the 2016 WT20 but none has taken more wickets than Rashid’s 377 wickets. That is 102 wickets more than the next best Imran Tahir, who with 275 wickets, finds himself at the second position. He needs only one wicket to secure 100 T20I wickets and that will be a good motivation for him to go all prepared.
Our Criclytics Player Projections predict Rashid to pick 2-3 wickets
Here are the top-11 Criclytics Projections based on our AI-driven algorithim.
Match-ups:
Afghanistan’s Qais Ahmed has had some success in the T20s as he has dismissed him three times in 20 deliveries, giving away just 9 runs in the process. He will be an important cog for Nabi to attack the former Pakistan skipper in the middle-overs.
You can check out many interesting match-ups by using this Criclytics tool.
