Afghanistan eye higher ranking as Zim seek to improve on batting

Afghanistan will be riding high on their recent international form. After clinching a historic ODI series against Zimbabwe and whitewashing them in the T20s too, Afghanistan recently beat Hong Kong in the lone T20I and won two more T20Is against Oman. They will be eager to finish what has been a historic year for them by continuing the run in the forthcoming series against Zimbabwe.

This time, Afghanistan have a further advantage by playing away from Zimbabwe’s home grounds. Sharjah will host all five ODIs spilling into 2016 and even though it’s not Afghanistan’s home ground either, there is likely to be more support for them than for the African side.

In October, Afghanistan’s charge was led by top-order batsmen Mohammad Nabi and Noor Ali Zadran, pace spearhead Dawlat Zadran and left-arm spinner Amir Hamza. This time, they have named a 21-man squad and have also roped in Manoj Prabhakar as bowling coachuntil the World T20 next year, with Inzamam-ul-Haq already in the support staff.

The biggest concern for Zimbabwe will be their batting as they were whitewashed in Bangladesh in November and will be worried further without the injured Sean Williams, who was their only batsmen to collect more than 150 runs against Afghanistan at home. More responsibility will thus fall on the experienced Sikandar Raza, Elton Chigumbura and Craig Ervine, with major hopes also pinned on the return of Hamilton Masakadza. While Tinashe Panyangara had a better outing in Bangladesh, the rest of the pacers will need to step up as their spinners did most of the work against Afghanistan.

Zimbabwe will be eager to show why they are ranked above Afghanistan. But if Afghanistan win the series, they will not only overtake Zimbabwe, but jump ahead of even Ireland in the table.