All Eyes On The Afghanistan-Pakistan Match Today
Sharjah, Sep 7 || Well furnished Afghanistan will look to bounce back against Pakistan today evening. A Win for Pakistan will take them to Asia Cup final while Afghanistan will look to open their account. After upseting India in the first encounter of their Super 4s, Pakistan will look to assure their place in the finals by defeating Afghanistan here on Wednesday in Sharjah.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan are familiar with UAE pitch and weather, both teams are now used to UAE conditions, it will be first clash of both the team in Asia Cup. In Sharjah the toss will be X Factor, only third time Pakistan are facing Afghanistan- having won both the matches in 2013 and 2019, it's going to be anybody's game in Sharjah.
Having kicked off their campaign with wins over Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Afghanistan were handed first defeat against Sri Lanka in the opening encounter of Super 4s. But, there wad also some of the positives as first of all it was a close game.
And overall, they have shown no longer just rely on Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahaman and Captain Mohammed Nabi for wickets anymore. Their pacers Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-haq has also emerged as match winners for them.
Another team who will keep eye on this game is India, who is hoping that Afghanistan manages to defeat Pakistan, so that hopes of India qualifying for the finals remains alive, which is mostly unlikely.
In batting department likes of Rahamatullah Gurbaz, Najibullah Zadran and Ibrahim Zadran has all stepped up to the challenge, they will need to keep on making those contribution if Afghanistan are to make the final. Pakistan, meanwhile are on cloud nine after winning against India and they will hope to continue their form against Afghanistan as well.
Pakistan has managed to put up good victories even as their captain being out of form and injuries. Mohammed Rizwan has been the player who is in tremendous form with 192 runs from three innings. The likes of Fakhar Zaman and Khushdil Shah have also found their form, in previous may have against India, allrounder Mohammed Nawaz scored quick-fire 42 off 20 balls after being promoted at no 4.
Bowling still remains biggest strength, with both duo of spinners Shadab Khan and Mohammed Nawaz sharing 13 wickets together. All eyes would be on Naseem Shah also, although he was out of form but still Naseem will start against Afghanistan, as Naseem has picked five wickets so far.
-- Ritik Bhadra