Recent Match
ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, 13th Match, Delhi, Oct 15th, 2023

England

(40.3 ov) 215/10

Afghanistan

(49.5 ov) 284/10

Complete Afghanistan won by 69 runs

Player of Match: Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Preview by Prakash Govindasreenivasan

Hashmatullah Shahidi doesn't like to dwell on the past. He made that clear in his first presser of the World Cup when he was quizzed about the pressures of playing a big tournament and recent history not doing him and his team any favours.

"We're different," he repeatedly stressed.

'Different' is what they need to be - from the version that bowled to Rohit Sharma three days ago, or the ones that ran into the England juggernaut in Manchester four years ago. Shahidi was there that day, partaking in the deflating neck exercise of following the trajectory of the ball sailing into the stands as Eoin Morgan hit a record 17 sixes and England amassed 25 in all - another record at the time. Morgan no longer takes the field as an active cricketer, but Jos Buttler's crew is capable of being as devastating, if not more.


England are currently like the plane that's just taken the last turn before the momentum-fueling sprint towards take-off. The Delhi venue, which now has the worst bowling average (51.32) at the World Cup, will provide quite the runway. Afghanistan showed competence with the bat in the game against India but it is their bowling that needs stepping up on Sunday, as England will not just eye the two points on offer, but also try to pair it up with a booster shot for their Net Run Rate. The extent to which Afghanistan blunt that will give a good idea of how accurate or farfetched Shahidi's pre-tournament claims are.

When: England vs Afghanistan, 13th October, 9:02 AM Local time

Where: Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi

What to expect: A hot evening with temperatures hitting 34 degrees Celsius when the game begins. England and Afghanistan will play on a surface adjacent to the one where the latter lost to India on October 11. There's a generous spread of green on this pitch, but as evidenced by the last two games here, that is merely cosmetic in this nightmarish venue for the bowlers.

Team Watch

England

Joe Root was largely non-committal on the status of Ben Stokes's availability, but did say that the 32-year-old trained well on Friday. With a lot of gap between games, England have the luxury to keep Stokes under wraps for Sunday, work up his fitness even more and then unleash him for the marquee game against South Africa in Mumbai on October 21.

Chris Woakes was absent from training on Friday but Root said he 'was on the bus' on Saturday. Should the allrounder miss out, England could bring in David Willey.

Tactics & Strategy:

The venue offers what England crave the most - a mountain of runs. They're likely to go harder than they did in Dharamsala, where they ended up with 364/9. It's outlandish to suggest there's room for improvement even from that effort, but there actually is : England got just 66 runs in the last 10 overs in that game - a modest return by their lofty white-ball standards.

Probable XI: Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Jos Buttler, Harry Brook/Ben Stokes, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes/David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Reece Topley

Afghanistan

Jonathan Trott responded to a query on possible changes to his side with "I am not at liberty to divulge that information, sorry," but it is unlikely for them to chop and change. They're more in need of better application from the bowlers they've trusted so far, rather than different bowlers altogether.

Tactics & Strategy:

Two days out from the game, Ajay Jadeja advised assistant coach Raees Ahmadzai to give Rahmanullah Gurbaz some confidence in the nets with the way he throws down to him. Gurbaz for his part, nailed his pull shots against the rising throw-downs and was tidy off his front foot too.

In a ground with short boundaries, the 21-year-old opener will be key for a good start against Reece Topley as he averages 48.33 against left-arm pacers. Ibrahim Zadran, Gurbaz's opening partner, does well against right-arm quicks - with an average of 55.67 and a strike rate of 85.35. Afghanistan might just have the right ingredients to take the game to England early on.

Probable XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman, Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq

Did you know:

- In the middle-overs (11-40) in ODIs since 2021, Dawid Malan averages 130.5 and strikes at 105.67

- Since the 2019 World Cup, Rahmat Shah has most runs in ODIs for Afghanistan (1048).

- Mohammad Nabi averages 21 with the bat and 39.7 with the ball in ODIs this year

- For all of his white-ball brilliance, Jos Buttler has not had a good time playing ODIs in India - with 146 runs in 9 innings at a lowly average of 16.22.

What they said:

"I think for me, what I judge is our preparation. We've got to make sure that each game we're going into, we believe that we can win. And I certainly believe that every game we go into from here on, we can win." -Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott.

"I think we weren't where we wanted to be in the first game. We were considerably better in the last game against Bangladesh and this is another opportunity for us to take another stride forward and keep building that momentum and that progression towards the business end of this tournament and making sure that we are where we need to be by the back end of it." - Joe Root
Squads:
England Squad: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Jos Buttler(w/c), Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Reece Topley, Gus Atkinson, Moeen Ali, David Willey, Ben Stokes
Afghanistan Squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Ikram Alikhil, Abdul Rahman, Riaz Hassan, Noor Ahmad