Lucknow: In their first one-day international since their winless ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 campaign, the Rashid Khan-led Afghanistan will want to prove a point against West Indies here on Wednesday.
The start of Rashid Khan’s captaincy tenure has been rather impressive. In his first international fixture as captain in all three formats, he led Afghanistan to a historic win against Bangladesh, their first in Test cricket.
He then led them to T20I victories against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in a tri-series. Now, he is set to lead them in ODIs for the first time since being handed the charge for all three formats, when his men take on West Indies in the first of three matches.
Afghanistan will also have other motivations to do well. A lot was expected of them at the World Cup in England, but despite coming close to beating India and Pakistan, they lost each of their nine league stage matches under the leadership of Gulbadin Naib.
A win in their first 50-over game since that tournament will do a lot of good for their collective confidence.West Indies themselves had a disappointing World Cup campaign, winning only two of their games.
Subsequently, they lost every completed game against India across all three formats at home.
As a consequence, Kieron Pollard has been handed the limited-overs captaincy.
He carries a wealth of experience with him, having represented West Indies in over 160 limited-overs matches. He led the side in two ODIs in 2013 with mixed results, earning a win against India but losing to Sri Lanka. This will be his first stint as full-time captain, an ICC report said.
West Indies racked up 311/6 when the two sides met in the World Cup, with Evin Lewis, Shai Hope and Nicholas Pooran making half-centuries.
Afghanistan made a fist of the chase, thanks to fifties from Rahmat Shah and Ikram Alikhil, but fell 23 runs short in the end. Kemar Roach and Carlos Brathwaite were instrumental for West Indies with the ball, taking seven wickets between them. (UNI)
