Afghanistan vs Ireland, Third T20I : Preview and Playing XI
A full strength Afghanistan cantered to massive 81 run-win in the second T20 international thanks to their all-round performance.
Now the Asian Nation will look to add another series sweep to their name, While Ireland will desperately want to escape some embarrassment by finishing the series off on a positive note when both these sides clash in the third and final T20I to be played on at the Bready Cricket Club in Bready, Northern Ireland on Fridayday, August 24.
Afghanistan
The Afghans are on a roll at the moment and they seem to be enjoying their time against a hapless Irish side.
They have been absolutely clinical in both the batting and bowling departments in this series. They won the first game by 16 runs, then raising their bar further to clinch 244 runs win in the previous fixture.
Batting: Hazratullah Zazai and Asghar Afghan have been the rock of Afghanistan batting line-up in the series. Fakhar has scored the most runs for the side so far with scores of 74 and 82 in his respective two innings.
Skipper Asghar too has been consistent with scores of 31 and 37. While Mohammad Shahzad once again failed to make any Impact and he will be eager to play a big on Friday.
Bowling: Rashid Khan has been the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/35 and 4/17 in the first and second fixture. His partner Mujeeb ur Rahman thrashed the Irish line-up with impressive figures of 2/14 and 3/17 in both fixtures and once again the onus will be on them to make the early inroads into the Greens batting line-up. While Fareed Ahmad and Aftab Alam have also been impressive on this tour with two and three wickets respectively.
Expected Playing XI: Asghar Afghan (C), Mohammad Shahzad, Hazratullah Zazai, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Samiullah Shenwari, Rashid Khan, Shafiqullah Shafiq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Aftab Alam and Fareed Ahmad.
Ireland
The hosts have tried everything they could, but nothing has worked for them. Now they seem to have run out of ideas to overcome this threatening Asian lineup.
Ireland have failed to click as a unit and they have not been able to stretch the visitors at all. They might rotate some of their players in next T20I. Hosts have now lost all the five T20I games they have played at the Bready Cricket Club.
Batting: Ireland relies heavily on their captain Gary Wilson to lead from the front as other batsmen failed to contribute much throughout the series. While Paul Stirling and William Porterfield were other top scorers for hosts with scores of 23 and 33 in first and second T20 respectively.
After the failures of Stuart Thompson and Andrew Balbirnie in both games. Management might consider James Shannon and David Delany as a replacement.
Bowling: Peter Chase has been the star performer for Ireland with the ball. The right-arm pacer has taken four wickets each in two matches and he is likely to cause problems for Blue Tigers once again. While his bowling partner Joshua Little picked three wickets in two matches but gave away 48 runs in his spell of four overs, which he will try to correct in his next outing.
Expected Playing XI: Gary Wilson (C), Kevin O'Brien, Andrew Balbirnie or James Shannon, Simi Singh, George Dockrell, Tyrone Kane, Joshua Little, Peter Chase, Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson or David Delany and William Porterfield.