Daily Times

England take on Afghanistan on Monday (today) at the Kennington Oval in London in what will be the final warm-up game for both teams before the start of the ICC World Cup 2019. Hosts England go into the match on the back of a loss to arch-rivals Australia whereas Afghanistan registered an upset win over Pakistan in their previous warm-up game. Nevertheless, there remains a clear gulf in class between the two sides despite Afghanistan’s rapid rise in the cricket world. England will be favourites to lift the title for the first time when the tournament gets underway whereas for Afghanistan, even making the semi-finals seems a difficult task at best.

That being said, the hosts will want to enter the tournament on the back of a winning performance but they will have to be at their best to outdo Afghanistan, who have the quality to spring an upset. England have been in fine form coming into the tournament, registering a 4-0 series win over Pakistan at home with their batsmen in particular looking in good touch. Afghanistan also won three of the previous five games they played, although it must be noted that their wins came against Scotland and Ireland. Nevertheless, their bowling remains their primary strength and they will hope to once again come to the party against what is a strong English batting line-up. For the hosts, the main aim would be to get through the game with minimal fuss regardless of the result given the glut of injury issues they are faced with. Skipper Eoin Morgan was ruled out of the warm-up games and the previous match saw both Mark Wood and Jofra Archer leave the field with minor injuries, meaning fielding coach Paul Collingwood had to take the field. For Afghanistan, this is a chance for their batsmen to show what they are made of. The World Cup is expected to be a high-scoring one and if they are to have a chance of making the knockouts they will have to look to score big consistently.

In-form players: England’s squad is filled with players who are in fine form with the likes of Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes all doing well with the bat against Australia. James Vince will likely not feature in the playing XI when the tournament begins but showed his ability with a well-made 64 in the previous match. For Afghanistan, Mohammad Nabi will be key with both bat and ball as he proved against Pakistan. Hashmatullah Shahidi played a fine knock against Pakistan as did Hazratullah Zazai. However, the likes of Asghar Afghan and Mohammad Shahzad can also play different roles and will be key in the upcoming games.

Squads

England: Eoin Morgan (C), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

Afghanistan: Gulbadin Naib (C), Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Noor Ali Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Asghar Afghan, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shinwari, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Hamid Hassan and Mujeeb ur Rahman.