New Zealand opt to bowl; Afghanistan bring in Noor for injured Mujeeb

New Zealand need 151 runs in 112 balls.

Toss New Zealand chose to bowl vs Afghanistan

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson won the toss and opted to bowl in their opening match of T20 World Cup 2024, against Afghanistan in Providence. They went in with three frontline seamers and plenty of spin options in Mitchell Santner, Michael Bracewell and Glenn Phillips.

“The T20 is not about just the toss,” Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan said. “We want to make sure we play good cricket.” Afghanistan made one forced change. Mujeeb Ur Rahman missed out with a hand injury, something Rashid said he has been struggling with for “the last seven-eight months”. Noor Ahmad replaced him in the XI.

This is the second match for Afghanistan. In their opening game, they had thumped Uganda by 125 runs.

The Providence pitch has a bit of grass. The two square boundaries are 70 metres and 77 metres; down the ground is 84 metres.

There was a threat of rain but it has stayed away so far.

Afghanistan: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Gulbadin Naib, 4 Azmatullah Omarzai, 5 Najibullah Zadran, 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Karim Janat, 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi

New Zealand: 1 Devon Conway (wk), 2 Finn Allen, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Mark Chapman, 7 Michael Bracewell, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Trent Boult, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Lockie Ferguson

Hemant Brar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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