Pakistan face Afghanistan in a three-match one-day worldwide collection in Sri Lanka beginning on Tuesday, with skipper Babar Azam seeing it pretty much as good preparation for the Asia Cup and World Cup.
The primary bilateral ODI collection between the 2 groups might be adopted by the six-nation Asia Cup, in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, starting on August 30 and the World Cup in India from October 5.
It’s a residence collection for Afghanistan who can not stage worldwide cricket in their very own nation due to safety fears.
“These three matches are a good opportunity for us to test our players in the match situation,” Azam informed AFP.
Azam is the top-ranked ODI batsman and leads a powerful aspect that additionally boasts openers Fakhar Zaman and Imamul Haq — ranked three and 4, respectively.
They’re backed up by a potent tempo assault of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf.
Afghanistan has world-class spinner Rashid Khan match once more after he withdrew from The Hundred competitors in England.
“Afghanistan have developed into a good side,” stated Azam of a staff which beat Bangladesh 2-1 in an ODI collection final month.
“We are not going to take these matches lightly,” stated Azam, regardless of Pakistan having gained all 4 ODIs towards Afghanistan for the reason that nations first met in 2012.
“We have good players who can deal with spin bowling so it is going to be an exciting series,” Azam stated.
Afghanistan are captained by batsman Hashmatullah Shahidi and have new faces in quick bowlers Abdul Rahman, Mohammad Saleem Safi and Wafadar Momand.
Tuesday’s match is being performed in Hambantota, with the remaining two in Colombo on Thursday and Saturday.
