AFG vs PAK 2nd T20 Match Prediction

AFG vs PAK Team Previews

Afghanistan

Rashid Khan will be delighted with the way his players performed in the last match. They executed their plan to a tee, to clinch their first-ever win over Pakistan in a T20 match.

Mohammad Nabi, who was recalled to the international side after a hiatus of almost 5 months, put up a brilliant all-round performance, picking up 2 wickets and playing a match-winning knock of 38 runs. The team will surely expect him to put up a similar performance here.

It was a very disciplined bowling performance from Afghanistan, as each of the 6 bowlers used by Rashid picked up at least one wicket. They put up a chokehold on the Pakistan batting to limit them to their 5th lowest T20 total ever. However, the batsmen will need to step up in this match as except for Nabi, none of the top or middle-order batsmen managed to put up a convincing display.

The pitch was challenging to bat on but Nabi showed that if you stick to the basics, it wasn’t impossible to score. The team has a lot of depth in their batting thanks to the presence of Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, and Najibullah Zadran, and they must use it to their advantage. 

Pakistan

While many expected Pakistan, playing without top performers like Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Rizwan, and Fakhar Zaman, to struggle a bit against Afghanistan, nobody expected them to surrender so meekly.

After opting to bat first, Pakistan could manage to score only 92 runs for the loss of 9 wickets on a tricky pitch which was quite helpful to the bowlers. None of the Pakistan batsmen could cross the 20-run mark as they lost wickets with frightening consistency.

Saim Ayub, who was brilliant in the recently concluded PSL, fell for just 17 runs, while the other PSL stars, including Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Haris, and Azam Khan too failed to impress. The performance of these batsmen exposes the perils of producing flat and lifeless pitches for domestic tournaments, which heavily tilt the balance in favor of the batsmen.

Ihsanullah had a dream international T20 debut as he picked up 2 wickets in his first 3 deliveries, but that wasn’t nearly enough to derail the chase. Pakistan has a strong pace attack in the form of Naseem Shah, Ihsanullah, and Zaman Khan, and will be hoping that they do a better job with the ball here.

Imad Wasim and skipper Shadab Khan will be the key players for Pakistan here as they can contribute with the bat as well as the ball.