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Afghanistan will take on Ireland in the 25th match of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Melbourne on Friday, October 28.
The Afghans will look to get a victory under their belt when they take on a high-flying Ireland, fresh off a win against World No. 2 England in their last match. Afghanistan batters, specifically, will be eyeing to return to form after getting unravelled by England’s left-arm seamer Sam Curran in their first match. Ireland, meanwhile, will hope to continue their all-round form, which helped them defeat England on Wednesday.
Pitch and Weather report
The MCG surface helps the seamers in early part of the innings and historically favours the team batting second, with 10 out of 16 T20I matches won by chasing.
Following the thunderstorm that halted England’s chase against Ireland and called-off Afghanistan’s game against New Zealand, 80% chances of rain are there in Melbourne from 8 am (local time) till 8 pm on Friday.
Predicted XI:
Afghanistan – Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Usman Ghani, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi (c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmed, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Ireland – Andrew Balbirnie (c), Paul Stirling, Lorcan Tucker, Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Fionn Hand, Joshua Little
Recent form
- Afghanistan: LLLLW (last five completed matches, most recent result first)
- Ireland: WLWWL
Who said what:
“I’ve always said cricket isn’t a big game in Ireland. We’re the flag bearers, and we want to make it possible. But it’s certainly an absolute pleasure to play here, to lead the first Irish team to ever play here. And we get to play here on Friday, which is such a thrill,” said the Irish captain Andrew Balbirnie ahead of the match.
“The conditions are totally different from the Asian condition. So, everyone is very excited. And the way I feel yesterday, some of the boys were really upset because of the rain. So that means, that’s showing that our players want to play cricket. And teams like Afghanistan and Ireland, they deserve to play more matches against the top nations,” said Raees Ahmadzai, Afghanistan’s assistant coach, on playing conditions in Australia.
