Afghanistan is successfully qualified by winning their last matches against Zimbabwe. Once again the Afghan’s proof them as a specialist twenty20 cricket team. They won against Zimbabwe by 59 runs and scored 186 in total. First match of this fastest growing cricket nation will be held against the defending champion Sri Lanka those passed a bad experience in ACC Asia cup t20 2016. India’s most famous cricket ground Eden garden will host this match between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
Match between – Sri Lanka Vs Afghanistan
Date – 17 March, 2016
Time – 19:30 Local time (Indian Standard time)
Venue – Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Day – Thursday
Stage – Ground round
Group – 1
After finishing of the match, highlights video will be available here
Team Squad –
Sri Lanka – Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Lasit Malinga, Jeffry Vandersay, Dushmantha Chameera, Chamara Kapugedera, Niroshan Dickwella, Nasum Shanaka, Milinda Sirivardana, Nuwan Kulasekara, Sachithra Senanayake, Rangana Herath, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Thisara Perera, Shehan Jayasuriya
Afghanistan – Dawlat Zadran, Asghar Stanikzai, Amir Hamza, Karim Sadiq, Hamid Hassan, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Shehzad, Mohammad Nabi, Mirwais Ashraf, Noor Ali Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Najeeb Tarakai, Ajay Vrajlal Lalcheta, Rokhan Barakzai, Rasid Khan, Usman Ghani, Shapoor Zadran, Shafiqullah, Yamin Ahmadzai
Though Afghanistan can’t play all format cricket yet but their twenty20 performance is extremely outstanding. Currently standing on 9th position in ICC world ranking. They scored huge amount of run in qualifier matches as well. Most important part of their team is, everyone of them contribute for the team and ultimately good result come on.
Cause of retirement of Kumar Sangakkara affect Sri Lankan national team a lot. Few months back, Lankan teams mentioned as the most leading t20 nation cause of their performance. But their performance in Asia cup was extremely poor. They can win only against United Arab Emirates. Rest of their games performance was not expected.
Past head to head of Afghanistan Vs Sri Lanka giving favour to Lankan team. But the captain Malinga is taking Afghanistan very seriously. Though the lions are big team but it’s twenty20 cricket where anything would be happen and if somehow loss this match, would go out from this biggest tournament. Still Chandimal, Dilshan, Malinga, Kulasekara is the dependence for this popular cricket nation.
Prediction of this match surely goes to Sri Lankan side but there have 40% chance to happen something uncertain into this game.
