“You think we will come only to play with Maxwell? Do you think it will be like that?,” asked Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi, as he addressed the media ahead of the Champions Trophy group league fixture against Australia.
He paused for a moment, and added with a smile: “We have plans for the entire Australian team and I know that Maxwell played really well in the 2023 World Cup, but that’s part of history…”
The last time the two teams squared off in a 50-over ICC event, in Mumbai in 2023, Glenn Maxwell stole Afghanistan’s thunder with an unbeaten double hundred, and dashed its hopes of making it to the knockouts.
At the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday, when the two sides meet again, a spot in the semifinal will be on the line.
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Afghanistan’s dramatic win over England has made the semifinal qualification from Group B a three-way battle, with two games to go. Australia has three points and maintains a better NRR (0.475) as compared to Afghanistan (-0.99), while South Africa is at the top of the group at 2.14.
With forecasts of rain, Australia will qualify if it wins or if there’s a washout. But in case there’s no game, Afghanistan will need England to beat South Africa by a big margin to make it to the last-four stage.
Coming on the back of a historic win against England, Afghanistan will once again rely on Ibrahim Zadran, whose record-breaking 177 paved the way for the team’s win against England, while focus will also be on Azmatullah Omarzai’s all-round show.
Australia has been a dominant side despite the absence of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. With Josh Inglis dominating against England in the opener, the batting will rely on him along with the seasoned Steve Smith and Maxwell.
Over the last few years, an Australia-Afghanistan game has been entertaining and things would be no different this time around.
The teams (from)
Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (Capt.), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Ikram Alikhil, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Nangyal Kharoti, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Farid Malik, Naveed Zadran.
Australia: Steven Smith(Capt.), Matthew Short, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis(w), Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Spencer Johnson, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Sean Abbott, Tanveer Sangha.
Match starts at 2.30pm