Afghanistan have won the toss and chosen to bat against Pakistan in Saturday’s crucial World Cup clash in Leeds.
Afghan captain Gulbadin Naib said the wicket looked good on a sunny day and will help the spinners in the second innings. He was hopeful of repeating a Pakistan defeat by his side during their warm-up match.
“Pakistan is a good side, they’ve played plenty of good games. We beat them in the warm-up so we’ll put our 100 per cent in this game,” he said.
Hamid Hassan is back in the side for the Afghans, replacing Dawlat Zadran.
Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed he would have liked to bat first as well. “We wanted to bat first but unfortunately toss is not in our hands. Our bowling line-up is bowling well so hopefully they’ll restrict them,” he said.
Pakistan need to beat Afghanistan today to stay in semifinal contention. A win would lift the Green Shirts above England and into fourth in the standings.
Teams
Pakistan: Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Haris Sohail, Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt & wk), Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz, Shaheen Afridi
Afghanistan: Gulbadin Naib (capt), Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, Samiullah Shinwari, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Rashid Khan, Hamid Hassan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
