Afghanistan v England – ICC World Twenty20 2012 (Group A) – Match Preview [Part 1]
Following a spirited performance against India, Afghanistan will be facing their second Group A opponents England as they go into the second match of their ongoing ICC World Twenty20 2012 campaign, to be played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on September
21.
The 2012 edition of the tournament sees significant improvements in the Afghanistan team, when compared with the squad with which they went into the 2009-10 World T20 (only to lose to India and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757).
While their current campaign has also kicked off with a defeat at the hands of India, the team has progressed a great deal since they faced the Men in Blue in the Caribbean. Now ranked among the ICC’s most prominent Associate/Affiliate Member teams, Afghanistan
have gone on to earn ODI status valid until 2013, played one-days against Test-level teams http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 and Australia, and cruised through this year’s ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier matches.
The improvement was apparent during their most recent match against India – an effort which was marked by the team’s high-spirited approach, and desire to compete, despite having drawn a tough pool for the current competition (Group A, with India and England).
The Afghan team fought until the very end of the match at the R Premadasa Stadium on September 19, and only let India off with a 23-run win – not a significantly high margin, considering the fact that India are at number 7 on the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625’s T20 team rankings,
while Afghanistan are not even on the table.
While a victory in the impending match against England seems unlikely, the game is bound to prove a valuable learning experience for the Afghan team as they look to progress upward and get their bearings in the cricketing world.
Afghanistan’s batting has been characterised by an element of inconsistency, and patchy performances – over time, they will need to look into establishing certain batsmen at specific positions in the order, for the development of the team in the long run.
The batting line-up for the game against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nawroz-Mangal-c2084 as openers. Shahzad is bound to play a key role for the team, being their most successful batsman in the T20 format (having
scored 330 runs), but will need to do better than the 18 runs he managed against India.
Veteran batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Asghar-Stanikzai-c1094 managed a poor contribution of 6 runs against India, and will need to tap into his previous form
which saw him managing scores such as 53 and 50 in the warm-up games (against the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in an ODI earlier this year.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Afghanistan-c745 will be hoping for similar performances from him.
The bowling attack is likely to be spearheaded by fiery Afghan paceman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/V-Sehwag-c2739. Dawlat Zadran will also feature as a vital cog in the attack, while part-time
bowlers such as Sadiq and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Samiullah-Shenwari-c2430 will need to step up his game, having failed to pick up any wickets in the team’s previous match.
Continued in Part 2 ...
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