Afghanistan will be competing in their first T20 World Cup as a Test playing nation and with that comes expectation. They made it straight through to the Super 12 stage of the competition and with little to lose will be looking to do some damage in conditions that they hope will suit them.
Profile
Captain: Mohammad Nabi
Previous Best: Super 10 2016
Key Players: Mohammad Nabi & Rashid Khan
Best Odds: 40/1 General
Fixtures
Oct 25 vs Scotland at Sharjah
Oct 29 vs Pakistan at Dubai
Oct 31 vs Namibia at Abu Dhabi
Nov 3 vs India at Abu Dhabi
Nov 7 vs New Zealand at Abu Dhabi
Squad
Mohammad Nabi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Hazratullah Zazai, Usman Ghani, Mohammad Shahzad, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, Gulbadin Naib, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Hamid Hassan, Farid Ahmed Malik, Naveen ul Haq.
Reserves: Sharafuddin Ashraf, Samiullah Shinwari, Dawlat Zadran, Fazal Haq Farooqi.
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Team Guide
Given the quality and number of spin options that Afghanistan have at their disposal, they will be licking their lips at getting the chance to compete in a tournament in these conditions. They have to make sure they don’t rely on those spinners too much though because teams will just milk them and feast on the other bowlers if nobody else steps up and is counted. It is always said that bowling attacks win these tournaments though so Afghanistan look good in that regard.
The big question mark hanging over Afghanistan in this tournament is their batting. They didn’t look great in the warm up stuff with the bat and if you go back to the last global tournament in England for the 50 over World Cup, they let themselves down with the bat in that event. Their batsmen don’t get anywhere near as much exposure to the top levels as their bowlers do so it is understandable that it is a weakness and it could define their success or otherwise.
Betting
I’m not entirely sure where Mohammad Nabi is going to bat for Afghanistan in this tournament but it will be somewhere in the top six and given he is the only member of the batting unit who plays in all the top T20 leagues I think there could be some value in backing him to be the leading Afghanistan run scorer at this tournament. This is not a good side with the bat and while the others might deliver individual efforts now and again I would imagine they will lack for consistency.
We have seen in all the big leagues that Nabi can smack a pretty long ball and he can hit some of the biggest and best bowlers in the world. He is probably best at getting after spin which will help his cause. He has played in the IPL here for the last two seasons so he will know conditions and how each pitch plays. I wouldn’t say he is a certainty here because he might bat too low down but eventually he could come up the order and at 16/1 I’ll pay to see if he can lead the run charts for Afghanistan.
Tips
Back M.Nabi Top Afghanistan Tournament Batter for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Betfair
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