ICC World Cup 2019: Match 24, England vs Afghanistan – Dream11 Fantasy Team based on Stats

England has begun the World Cup 2019 on a positive note with three wins from the four matches they played. They thumped South Africa in their first game before going down to Pakistan in a high-scoring thriller. The hosts returned to form with back to back huge wins against Bangladesh and Windies respectively. The favourites of the tournament, England, will now face Afghanistan as they move close to sealing the semi-final spot.

Afghanistan, the 12th side to feature in Test cricket, failed to live up to their potential and the expectations of being the dark horse. The internal issues seem to have unsettled the team atmosphere as the batsmen have failed to put up some fight in all matches. The seaming tracks in the games they played did favour the Afghans either. A defeat against England will most probably make Afghanistan the first side to be out of semi-final contention.

Here we bring you the Dream11 Fantasy team based on the stats of the players:

Wicket-Keepers:

Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler and Ikram Ali Khil are the options in the wicket-keepers category. The young Afghanistan keeper is far from being a contributor with the bat. Both Bairstow and Buttler are in good form and are coming with runs in their kitty. Buttler might not be effective if England bowl first considering Afghanistan’s recent form. He might not get a chance to bat like in the game against the Windies.

Batsmen:

Jason Roy has scored over 400 runs in his last five ODI innings with two centuries and two fifties. However, an injury has put him out for at least two matches. Along with Roy, skipper Eoin Morgan also might miss the game against Afghanistan. Joe Root would be the best pick from this game as he scored runs and also been amongst wickets in ODI format recently. Hazaratullah Zazai and Najibullah Zadran can be picked from Afghanistan batsmen. Najib was dropped in the previous game despite his recent form but might return to the playing XI.

All-rounders:

Chris Woakes and the Afghan skipper Gulbadin Naib picked up nine and eight wickets respectively in their last five ODIs. They too have been decent with the bat at the same time. The experience of Mohammad Nabi has underplayed in the tournament as the all-rounder has been miserable with the bat. Ben Stokes bagged five wickets in last five ODIs and also scored 139 runs in those.

Bowlers:

Rashid Khan has been far from his best in this World Cup as the two wickets he took against Sri Lanka was the only meaningful performance in the tournament from him. He has had a couple of good scores with the bat but that doesn’t cover up his poor show with the ball. Mark Wood and Jofra Archer bagged 11 and 10 wickets respectively in their last five ODIs. Aftab Alam too has been good at wicket-taking as he picked up nine from his previous five.