A battered England will hope to maintain their Champions Trophy hopes alive after they face a harmful Afghanistan in an important group B match in Lahore on Wednesday. A defeat right here would severely dent each the groups’ desires of a semifinal berth within the match, as South Africa and Australia have already notched up two factors. The times of England’s white ball supremacy are far behind now, as the previous world champions’ creaking unit even didn’t defend a 350-plus complete in opposition to Australia of their match opener.
Whereas England could take some consolation in posting an enormous complete, the truth is that it got here in opposition to an Australian facet lacking their premier pacers – Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood.
The English bowlers then didn’t cease an Australian line-up that didn’t have lead batters reminiscent of injured Mitchell Marsh and now-retired Marcus Stoinis.
So, England might want to present large enchancment in opposition to Afghanistan on each these counts.
Afghanistan’s three-pronged spin assault, consisting Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad and Mohammad Nabi, has the potential to hassle even the perfect, and England batters’ latest outings in opposition to gradual bowlers are usually not confidence inspiring both.
England additionally suffered a setback as all-rounder Brydon Carse has been dominated out of the match with a toe damage. He has been changed by leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed in an effort to strengthen their spin division.
This transfer can even present Adil Rashid with correct backing, as, till now, Liam Livingstone had been performing that position together with his combined bag of off-spin, leg-spin, and seam-up deliveries.
However England’s actual downside lies within the patchy type of opener Phil Salt and Harry Brook within the middle-order.
Salt’s solely hundred within the format was in 2022 and since then the Welshman has probably not transformed his begins, usually getting out after a fast 30 or 40.
Brook additionally affords the same story. The Yorkshire man seemed in prime kind throughout the dwelling ODIs in opposition to Australia final 12 months, hammering 100 and two fifties in a three-match sequence.
Nevertheless, Brook has been riddled with self-doubts in opposition to spinners because the tour to India, and fell to Aussie leg-spinner Adam Zampa within the final match.
Now, the 26-year-old should negate three high-quality tweakers in opposition to Afghanistan.
The Afghans, then again, have their very own issues to deal with. They’re coming off a 107-run shellacking by South Africa of their match opener.
That they had reached the semifinals of the T20 World Cup 2024 with virtually the identical set of gamers however the ODI format calls for rather more consistency in efficiency and execution of methods.
Afghanistan have the required expertise however they should discover a approach to channelise that persistently to problem England, even of their most weak state.
Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), 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. Reserves: Darwish Rasooli, Bilal Sami.
England: Jos Buttler (c), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Tom Banton, Harry Brook, Rehan Ahmed, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Jamie Smith, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Saqib Mahmood, Phil Salt, Mark Wooden.
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