🏏ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026: M4: AFG vs NZ at Chennai on 08/02/26🏏 - Page 3

Michael Bracewell being fit will come in very handy for New Zealand as it lengthens their batting and also gives an extra spin option. Given it's a day game, will the Blackcaps add an extra spin option and compromise on pace? But that could eat into advantage of extracting bounce with their tall pacers.

Is this game going to be about New Zealand batters v Afghanistan spinners in the middle overs and Afghan batters v Blackcaps pacers. If Afghanistan play Mujeeb as well, they could unleash four spinners and at least 14 overs of spin. But New Zealand aren't a bad spin-playing team so it'll be interesting to see Afghanistan's combo.

"When Pakistan had a collapse yesterday in the first match, someone commented that it will be hard to top. But after watching the next two matches, it fells like it was just a tease of things to come"

Rashid Khan - We will like to bat first. First game for us, fresh wicket, put runs on the board and I think there will be more help for our spinners later on. I feel like having played in a few ICC events and played all around the world, all the players have played a lot and they have much experience, but it's just about making sure you bring that experience and then play the smart game. I feel like that's more important and we're fully ready for it and we are hopefully ready to deliver some great performances. Myself, Mujeeb and Nabi, the three spinners, but think there'll be help for the pacers as well. feel like it's a pitch that's going to be helpful for the fast bowlers if you bowl in the right areas. We have three pacers as well. Fazalhaq Farooqi, the all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai and Ziaur Rahman Sharifi, the three pacers. Gulbadin can bowl as well.

Afghanistan have won the toss and have opted to bat

Mitchell Santner - We were thinking about it (if he;d have bowled first), you know, there's some grass here. My six years in Chennai have obviously hasn't been much grass on this pitch, so I think it'll play pretty good. it was good. (on the preparations) I mean, we had a hectic schedule with the India series traveling around the country, but we had a few days in Mumbai, which was nice, our second warm-up game. And then, yeah, we're here now, but yeah, ready to go. I think everyone's back, which is nice. We were struggling a little bit with that warm-up game, a few boys down, but yeah, we've gone, it's similar, I guess we've got three seamers and then Neesham, the fourth seamer, with, you know, me, Rachin and GP as our spinners. Ish Sodhi, Bracewell, Conway and Jamieson miss out from today's game

Teams:

New Zealand (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Tim Seifert(w), Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner(c), James Neesham, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Jacob Duffy

Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan(c), Fazalhaq Farooqi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Ziaur Rahman Sharifi

"Excellent decision to bat 1st. If Afghanistan can post anything between 160-190, they can fancy themselves defending successfully "

Teams:

New Zealand (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Tim Seifert(w), Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner(c), James Neesham, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Jacob Duffy

Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan(c), Fazalhaq Farooqi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Ziaur Rahman Sharifi

Mitchell Santner - We were thinking about it (if he;d have bowled first), you know, there's some grass here. My six years in Chennai have obviously hasn't been much grass on this pitch, so I think it'll play pretty good. it was good. (on the preparations) I mean, we had a hectic schedule with the India series traveling around the country, but we had a few days in Mumbai, which was nice, our second warm-up game. And then, yeah, we're here now, but yeah, ready to go. I think everyone's back, which is nice. We were struggling a little bit with that warm-up game, a few boys down, but yeah, we've gone, it's similar, I guess we've got three seamers and then Neesham, the fourth seamer, with, you know, me, Rachin and GP as our spinners. Ish Sodhi, Bracewell, Conway and Jamieson miss out from today's game

Rashid Khan - We will like to bat first. First game for us, fresh wicket, put runs on the board and I think there will be more help for our spinners later on. I feel like having played in a few ICC events and played all around the world, all the players have played a lot and they have much experience, but it's just about making sure you bring that experience and then play the smart game. I feel like that's more important and we're fully ready for it and we are hopefully ready to deliver some great performances. Myself, Mujeeb and Nabi, the three spinners, but think there'll be help for the pacers as well. feel like it's a pitch that's going to be helpful for the fast bowlers if you bowl in the right areas. We have three pacers as well. Fazalhaq Farooqi, the all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai and Ziaur Rahman Sharifi, the three pacers. Gulbadin can bowl as well.

Afghanistan have won the toss and have opted to bat

Good start from NZ: A fresh wicket and both captains think the pacers will come into play with the new ball. Expect AFG to score around 45 runs for the loss of two wickets in the batting PP.

Ferguson to Ibrahim Zadran, OUT

Ferguson strikes first ball with a poor delivery. Is there such a thing in T20s?

Ibrahim Zadran c Phillips b Ferguson 10 (12b 1x4 0x6) SR: 83.33

Afghanistan

(5.1/20 ov) 35/1

New Zealand

Afghanistan chose to bat.

Stats view

Current RR: 6.77

• Last 5 ov (RR): 35/1 (7.00)

Live Forecast:

AFG 161