Champions Trophy 2025: Afghanistan vs England, Match 8 - Top 3 player battles to watch out for

Match Overview

The situation in Group B has been interesting and this time it will be the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore that will host the upcoming match between Afghanistan and England on February 26. This will be a must-win game for both teams as they have already suffered losses in their first encounter.

Both sides victims of poor bowling performances

The two teams have some world-class bowlers within the ranks which makes it surprising to see how they performed in the previous matches. The England bowlers failed to defend a huge target against arch-rivals Australia and though there was a lot of praise going around on the Afghanistan bowling they simply failed to do any damage against South Africa.

Will Afghanistan do a 2023 ODI World Cup repeat?

The last time the two teams faced an ICC event was in the 2023 ODI World Cup. That was the day England faced a major upset as the Afghanistan side beat them for the first time. The Hasmat Shahidi-led side will hope they can do a repeat of the iconic match against the three-time World Champions.

Here are the top three player battles to watch out for in Australia vs South Africa, Match 7 of the Champions Trophy 2025:

3. Rahmanullah Gurbaz vs Mark Wood

Rahmanullah Gurbaz has been one of the best batters for Afghanistan in the past few years known for his ability to score quickly and play some big innings. It will be interesting to see him battle it out against the express pace of Mark Wood who will want to make an impact after his horrific experience in the game against England.

These two might have not faced each other a lot in the ODI format but Gurbaz seemed to have gotten the better of him in the 15 balls he faced of the 35-year-old pacer scoring 19 runs at a strike rate of 126.7. Wood has dismissed him once in white ball cricket which was in the 2022 T20 World Cup.