Lahore, Feb 28 Afghanistan have won the toss and elected to bat first against Australia in the Group B clash of the 2025 Champions Trophy at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday.
There was heavy rain in the lead-up to the clash at Lahore, but skies cleared up in time for the toss to happen. Friday’s match will be played on a used pitch, where Australia previously faced England in the eight-team tournament.
The equation for Afghanistan to enter the Champions Trophy semi-finals is very simple; they need to beat Australia to secure their qualification. But a defeat to Australia would knock them out of the competition.
Even if the match is later abandoned due to rain, it won’t favour Afghanistan, as they could still be eliminated from the tournament on the basis of the net run rate.
After winning the toss, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said their playing eleven is unchanged from their thrilling win over England.
“We will bat first because the wickets looks good; it's a used pitch, England and Australia already played on this pitch, so it will slow down in the second half, and hopefully our spinners will come into play.
“We were happy with the performance in our last game; we also have made plans against Australia, and hopefully we can rectify the mistakes we made against England,” he said.
Australia skipper Steve Smith said he would have bowled first as well. “Uncertain overhead conditions and there's the dew factor as well, so would have bowled. All the guys are doing good, should be a good contest. Coming here with good intent and aggression and ready to get started.”
Playing XIs
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, and Fazalhaq Farooqi
Australia: Matthew Short, Travis Head, Steve Smith (captain), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, and Spencer Johnson
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor