ICC T20 World Cup – Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first

Afghanistan won the toss and are batting first. While Afghanistan qualified directly for the ICC T20 World Cup, Scotland had to go through the qualifying round. The team led by Kyle Coetzer played brilliant cricket and won all three matches to make it to the Super 12 stage. Scotland also defeated Bangladesh and their brand of cricket impressed everyone.

Afghanistan, on the other hand, is led by Mohammad Nabi after Rashid Khan decided to step down before the global event. The team from the sub-continent has defeated Scotland six times, though they haven’t faced each other in this format since 2016.

The pitches at Sharjah was not easy to bat on during the IPL and the first round of the T20 World Cup but saw an improvement in a match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. If the pitch follows the same norm, the batters will enjoy batting on this surface.

Afghanistan Playing XI: 1 Hazratullah Zazai, 2 Mohammad Shahzad (wk), 3 Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 4 Najibullah Zadran, 5 Asghar Afghan, 6 Mohammad Nabi (capt), 7 Karim Janat, 8 Gulbadin Naib, 9 Rashid Khan, 10 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 11 Naveen ul Haq

Scotland Playing XI : 1 George Munsey, 2 Kyle Coetzer (capt), 3 Matthew Cross (wk), 4 Richie Berrington, 5 Calum MacLeod, 6 Michael Leask, 7 Chris Greaves, 8 Mark Watt, 9 Josh Davey, 10 Safyaan Sharif, 11 Brad Wheal