'Quality' Afghanistan ready for Asia Cup heavyweights

The ICC T20 World Cup will begin in Australia from next month and most of the teams have announced their 15-member squads for the event. The Aussies under Aaron Finch will be looking to defend their title at home while the likes of New Zealand, England, India and Pakistan will look to the Aussies a tough fight. A rejuvenated Sri Lankan side also looks threatening while the quality of South Africa and West Indies in this format can also not be ignored.

Uncapped fast bowler Salim Safi and middle-order batter Darwish Rasooli have been picked in Afghanistan's 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup in Australia, the country's cricket board said on Thursday.

The Afghanistan-Pakistan Super 4 match at the Asia Cup on Wednesday was a closely fought one with the latter prevailing in the last over of a 130-run chase. Courtesy the win, Pakistan set up a final clash with Sri Lanka on Sunday. However, the match between the Babar Azam-led Pakistan and the Mohammad Nabi-led Afghanistan was also witness to some untoward incident between Asif Ali and Fareed Ahmed Malik. It happened in the 19th over after Pakistan batter Ali was dismissed by Malik.

The Asia Cup 2022 stood witness to some unsavoury incident as fans caused mayhem after the Afghanistan-Pakistan match on Wednesday. The match was a closely-contested one as Pakistan won in the last over chasing a low target of 130. There was fight between Pakistan's Asif Ali and Afghanistan's Fareed Ahmed Malik, after the former was given send-off by the latter. Latter, Afghanistan fans could be seen uprooting the stadium chairs and creating ruckus. Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ramiz Raja has taken strong exception to the unruly behaviour of the fans.

Dinesh Karthik has been around for a while. He made his international debut way back in September 2004 in an ODI vs England at Lord's. So far the 37-year-old has played 170 international matches (across all three formats) for India. He has scored over 3000 international runs, played match-winning knocks, kept wickets, taken over 100 international catches and pulled off stumpings. But the one thing he hadn't tried his hand at in an international game, till India's Asia Cup Super 4 match vs Afghanistan on Thursday, was bowling. Now, Karthik has bowling figures against his name as well for the first time in his 18-year-long India career. On Thursday, Karthik bowled the first-ever over of his international career when stand-in captain KL Rahul gave him the white leather during the Asia Cup 2022 match against Afghanistan. India had already been knocked out of the Asia Cup prior to this game. After posting a mammoth 212 for 2 in 20 over, thanks largely to a belligerent and much-awaited century by Virat Kohli (122* off 61 balls), the Indian bowlers put the Afghans on the mat at 21/6 in as early as the 7th over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the pick of the Indian bowlers returning astonishing figures of 5/4 in his allotted 4 overs. It was in a way surprising to see the Afghan innings extend till the 20th over and the world number 10 ranked team, who have improved in leaps and bounds in the shortest format, not being bowled out, considering the 7th wicket fell in the form of all-rounder Rashid Khan with just 54 runs on the board. Ibrahim Zadran stood tall amidst the ruins with an unbeaten 59 ball 64. He came in at number 3 and stayed till the end, bringing up his 50 and his team's 100 in the very last over.

Virat Kohli hit his first international century since November 2019 with a maiden T20 ton for India to lead the team's 101-run thrashing of Afghanistan in the Asia Cup on Thursday. The star batsman stood unbeaten on 122 off 61 deliveries to power India to 212-2 in Dubai after being put into bat first in their last Super Four match following their elimination from the tournament. Seam bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar then returned his T20 best of five wickets for four runs to help limit Afghanistan to 111-8 with Ibrahim Zadran unbeaten on 64.