By CricketCountry Staff
After a spectacular Test series against England, Pakistan will now look to flex their muscles and get themselves warmed up with an ODI match at the Sharjah Stadium against their neighbours, Afghanistan.
Published: Feb 10, 2012, 04:16 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 10, 2012, 04:16 PM (IST)
Afghanistan are all set to play their first ever ODI against a Test playing nation and although they have nothing to lose they sure do have a lot to prove © Getty Images
By CricketCountry Staff
Sharjah: Feb 10, 2012
After a spectacular Test series against England, Pakistan will now look to shift gears as they continue to hunt for success in the One Day International format. Before a four match ODI series against England, the hosts will look to flex their muscles and get themselves warmed up with an ODI at the Sharjah Stadium against their neighbours, Afghanistan.
While Pakistan will look at it as a chance to get their combination right for the future series, Afghanistan will certainly want to prove a point to the ICC who recently expressed their desire to exclude Associate nations from World Cups after 2015.
This Pakistan outfit seems to have become the talk of the town after a quite remarkable 12 months that saw them winning 21 out of the 26 ODIs that they played. In this period Pakistan also had a fabulous run in the 2011 World Cup as they went as far as the semi final. One would be living in a fool’s paradise if they thought that Pakistan was anything but the favourites to win this one off ODI against the Afghans.
Afghanistan are all set to play their first ever ODI against a Test playing nation and although they have nothing to lose they sure do have a lot to prove. This side will obviously look at the match as a huge learning experience, but at the same time it would also be a good opportunity for Afghanistan to show the world what they are worth.
The last time Afghanistan played on a world platform was in the 2010 ICC Twenty20 World Cup. The side then looked nowhere close to being at par with the big guns, but a lot has changed in the past two years. Afghanistan has grown to become one of the strongest teams amongst the Associate nations and the inclusion of three Afghan players in the ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI that nearly came up on top against England XI is proof of that fact.
Teams:
Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq(c), Asad Shafiq, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Younis Khan
Afghanistan: Nowroz Mangal(c), Dawlat Zadran, Gulbodin Naib, Hamza Hotak, Karim Sadiq, Mirwais Ashraf, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Shahzad(w), Noor Ali Zadran, Samiullah Shenwari, Shapoor Zadran
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