Afghanistan v England – ICC World Twenty20 2012 (Group A) – Match Preview [Part 2]
Continued from Part 1 ...
While http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625’s T20 team rankings, and are expected to face little trouble as they look to move forward past Afghanistan.
The English team has made a promising start, having won both of their warm-up games, against Australia and Pakistan. However, a notable exclusion from the squad this time around, as compared to the XI which secured the World T20 title for England in 2009-10 in the Caribbean, is that of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KP-Pietersen-c1806.
In addition to having won the Player of the Tournament award during their World T20 triumph, Pietersen is England’s most successful batsman in the format (with 1,176 runs from 36 matches to his credit). However, a tiff with the England and Wales Cricket Board means the team will be defending their title without the hard-hitting right-hander.
Despite the loss, the Poms have a promising new addition to the squad in the form of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 in June this year. A 52 off 38 in the warm-up game against Australia suggests that Hales is bound to play a big role for the team in the tournament.
In addition to Hales, the top order is likely to feature wicketkeeper batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746’s Big Bash League.
Without experienced campaigners such as Pietersen and the now-retired http://www.senore.com/Cricket/David-Leslie-Bairstow-c53048).
In this regard batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Eoin-Joseph-Gerard-Morgan-c56032 will be required to play a key role in solidifying the middle order – in addition to having featured in the Indian Premier League, the 26-year-old has played a total of 25 T20Is (with 618 runs to his credit), and 88 T20s (1718 runs).
The bowling attack will be led by skipper and pace spearhead http://www.senore.com/Cricket/GP-Swann-c1501. The veteran off-spinner is England’s most successful bowler in the T20 format, with 44 wickets from 34 matches to his credit.
To accompany Broad for the pace attack, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/TT-Bresnan-c2711 (who would originally have been first choice were it not for his patchy performances of late) or Jade Dernbach (who put up a good show during the recent limited-overs series against South Africa).
It’s a toss-up between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755.
With both England and Afghanistan looking to further their World T20 campaigns, the match will be played out at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on September 21, with a forecast for scattered thunderstorms, and an expected temperature of around 26 - 29° C.
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