Pakistan faces Afghanistan in a three-match One-Day International collection in Sri Lanka beginning on Tuesday, with skipper Babar Azam seeing it pretty much as good preparation for the Asia Cup and World Cup.
The first bilateral ODI collection between the 2 groups shall be adopted by the six-nation Asia Cup, in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, starting on August 30 and the World Cup in India from October 5.
It is a house collection for Afghanistan, which can’t stage worldwide cricket in its personal nation due to safety fears.
“These three matches are a good opportunity for us to test our players in the match situation,” Azam instructed AFP.
Azam is the top-ranked ODI batter and leads a robust facet that additionally boasts openers Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq – ranked three and 4, respectively.
They are backed up by a potent tempo assault of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf.
Afghanistan has world-class spinner Rashid Khan match once more after he withdrew from The Hundred competitors in England
“Afghanistan have developed into a good side,” stated Azam of a workforce which beat Bangladesh 2-1 in an ODI collection final month.
“We are not going to take these matches lightly,” stated Azam, regardless of Pakistan having gained all 4 ODIs towards Afghanistan because the international locations first met in 2012.
“We have good players who can deal with spin bowling so it is going to be an exciting series.”
Afghanistan is captained by batter Hashmatullah Shahidi and has new faces in quick bowlers Abdul Rahman, Mohammad Saleem Safi and Wafadar Momand.
Tuesday’s match is being performed in Hambantota, with the remaining two in Colombo on Thursday and Saturday.
THE SQUADS
PAKISTAN
Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel, Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Tayyab Tahir, Mohammad Haris, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim.
AFGHANISTAN
Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ikram Alikhil, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Mohammad Saleem Safi, Wafadar Momand.
Source: sportstar.thehindu.com