Pakistan and Afghanistan will take each other on in the opening game of their ODI series on Tuesday. The two teams have already qualified for the World Cup in India later this year and the three-match series will be a tune-up for them ahead of the marquee event. They will also be competing in the upcoming Asia Cup starting on August 30.
Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Sri Lanka will host the series opener on August 22. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan will be looking to build some momentum ahead of the upcoming international tournaments in their series starting from Tuesday.
Pakistan played their last series against Sri Lanka in a two-Test match affair. They won their first game by four wickets before recording a dominant victory by an innings and 222 runs in their second match. Afghanistan last competed against Bangladesh in an ODI and a T20I series. They swept the Bangladeshis 2-0 in the ODI format before conceding a 2-0 loss in the T20I matches.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have faced each other a total of four times in ODIs. Pakistan have managed to win each of the four occasions against the Afghans. It would be interesting to see if Afghanistan can finally overcome the Asian giants to record a victory against them for the first time.
Pakistan are the favourites to win the ODI competition on Tuesday. However, Afghanistan do have a chance to pull off an upset in the ODI clash in Sri Lanka.
AFG vs PAK Dream11 Prediction
Captain: Babar Azam
Vice-captain: Rashid Khan
Wicketkeepers: Rahmanullah Gurbaz
Batters: Babar Azam, Ibrahim Zadran, Imam ul Haq, Fakhar Zaman
All-rounders: Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nabi
Bowlers: Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Rashid Khan
AFG vs PAK Probable XIs:
PAK Probable XI: Imam ul Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam (c), Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf
AFG Probable XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shaidi (c), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed, Wafadar Momand, Mohammad Saleem Safi
AFG vs PAK Full Squad
Pakistan: Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (c), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Salman Ali Agha, Faheem Ashraf, Muhammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Haris (wk), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Usama Mir
Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullag Zadran, Riaz Hasan, Abdul Rahman, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rahmat Shah, Shahidullah, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Fareed Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Mohammad Saleem, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Rashid Khan, Wafadar Momand