Sri Lanka begin the defence of their Cricket T20 World Cup title on Thursday afternoon when they take on the lowest ranked side in the group in Afghanistan, a side who have already played a ridiculous amount of matches to make it to this stage.
While Sri Lanka were automatically guaranteed their spot in this Super 10 stage, Afghanistan have had to go through two qualifying rounds to make it into this group but with all that match practice and momentum behind them it would be no surprise if they clip a few of the wings of the bigger birds now they are here.
Sri Lanka go into this competition in a bit of turmoil. We shouldn’t expect anything like we saw from them two years ago. They bombed out of the Asia Cup early and have now lost eight of their last 10 T20 internationals and that isn’t a form line to launch a title tilt from.
While Lasith Malinga hasn’t been ruled out of this match yet, he will be assessed on the morning of the game, it makes no sense in him playing if he isn’t 100% fit, especially with seemingly tougher matches to come in the tournament. Lahiru Thirimanne looks to have done enough to secure his spot in the side.
Afghanistan are such a competent outfit in this format of the game that they are actually ranked ninth in the world in it. We’ve seen why in the early rounds of the event. They have a star at the top of the batting order in Mohammad Shahzad but if he doesn’t come off they’ve some calm, assured presences in the middle order and then when it comes to the ball the mix of pace and spin is very positive.
The only question mark over selection for Afghanistan going into this match is the make up of their bowling attack. If they want to play the extra spinner then Amir Hamza would seem the natural option while if they want the seamer it will be Hamid Hassan.
This is the second match of the tournament at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The first saw Pakistan wrack up a huge score against Bangladesh, a score they were never in any danger of not defending.
The wicket was pretty slow though and it turned a bit so I’m not sure I’m expecting a high scoring game here. That might suit Sri Lanka because I’m not convinced they are capable of big scores at the minute given how out of form and unsettled their batting line up is.
Afghanistan have really impressed me so far and I’ve really enjoyed watching them and I think I’m going to enjoy watching them again. I think they are competitive with the ball and fearless with the bat and if they hit Sri Lanka hard early on it wouldn’t be a surprise to me if they get the job done here.
In the Asia Cup we saw Sri Lanka really labour against a weak looking UAE side in comparison to this Afghanistan side and if Sri Lanka do win, such is the pressure they are under and the lack of form they are in, I can only see it being a narrow win. It is all about the win for Sri Lanka not the margin of victory so I think Afghanistan can stay inside what looks to be a fairly generous handicap.
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