PAK vs AFG 36th Match Prediction

PAK vs AFG Team Previews

Pakistan

Social media has been taken over by the similarities in the Pakistani 1992 World Cup campaign and the 2019 World Cup. It seems like the team truly believes it can make the semi-finals and even though its destiny is not in its own hands, Pakistan must do what it can to help make the dream come true.

After beating South Africa and New Zealand quite comfortably, beating Afghanistan should not be a problem.

However, this is exactly where a team like Pakistan is vulnerable. It seems to play at its best when there are next to no expectations. The pressures of expectations weigh it down but the goal of making a semi-final should help it stay focused.

A few changes to the Pakistani team have helped it turn its fortunes around. The inclusion of Haris Sohail has added a lot of strength to the middle order while picking Shaheen Afridi in place of Hasan Ali has reaped rich rewards as well.

Both these players were outstanding in the match against New Zealand. They also seem to be players driven by confidence and so will come into this match against Afghanistan on a high.

Babar Azam has continued to have a brilliant ICC World Cup 2019 and is finally converting his fifties into big scores. With Mohammad Hafeez in the middle, Pakistan’s main batting concern seems to be its opening batsmen. Imam ul Haq and Fakhar Zaman have not been able to provide the side with consistent starts and that can add pressure on the middle order.

Pakistan has to be wary of the Afghanistan bowling attack since it has some tricky customers. Its own bowling is far superior to Afghanistan’s. Mohammad Amir is bowling at his best while Wahab Riaz is generating some serious pace as well.

Pakistan is a side that can be brilliant one day and terrible the next and this is what it has to guard against.

Afghanistan

A good bowling performance against India and then Bangladesh would have given it some hope going into the match against Pakistan. On both occasions, there were some real opportunities for it to try and get a win under its belt but the batting was not up to the mark.

It also seems that the Afghan players are more comfortable playing against their Asian opponents than some of the other teams they have come across. Afghanistan pushed Sri Lanka to the edge, had India on the ropes, and gave Bangladesh a scare as well.

Against Pakistan, the onus of trying to win this match must fall on the bowlers. Mujeeb ur Rahman, Rashid Khan, and Mohammad Nabi came into the tournament with a big reputation. That T20 success has not translated well into the 50 over game apart from some small periods of play where they managed to get a few wickets.

Pakistan’s batting is shaky and Afghanistan must believe that it can cause it to crumble.

Gulbadin Naib has developed a good slower ball and is good in the end overs while Dawlat Zadran is the main threat with the new ball.

The batting for Afghanistan has been an absolute disaster.

Rahmat Shah was one of the few good batsmen in the side but he has not performed as per expectations. None of the other batsmen have been able to get any sort of momentum into the game either. We thought including Samiullah Shinwari was a good move from Afghanistan but overall it's batting still looks very shaky.

They have lost the services of Mohammad Shahzad due to injury but not really found another good opening batsman to take his place. Gulbadin Naib is doing the job right now but we don’t think he is close to being qualified for the job.

Afghanistan’s bowling is not bad but its batting is going to need a miraculous turnaround against a very good Pakistani attack if it has to have a chance.