ICC World Cup: Afghanistan to face Australia at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai
ICC World Cup today, Australia will take on Afghanistan at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The match will start at 2 Pm.
For the umpteenth time during this World Cup, the focus and attention throughout an Australian training session was on one vital player. After Glenn Maxwell a few days ago in Ahmedabad and Marcus Stoinis earlier in the tournament, all eyes at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday (November 6) were on Steve Smith.
The Australian vice-captain had attended a press conference earlier, where he’d looked a bit out of sorts, even if he did manage to get through all the questions posed to him. It was when he was asked about looking like he was in discomfort that he revealed to have been suffering from vertigo over the last two days. From that point on, every movement he made during training was looked at through very close lens with every pair of binoculars at the ground trained on him. Ironically, Smith spent an hour or so batting away as usual, not showing any signs of the vertigo, hitting sixes and also at one point running up and down the steps of the Wankhede home dressing-room to fetch some extra gloves.
It’s only when Smith stepped back in for a net thereafter did you see him suddenly begin to feel a tad unwell. He left the net, stood around with his head bent downwards before taking a seat behind the net, and then eventually lying down on the grass with his eyes closed. He stayed there for 10 or so minutes before lifting himself and leaving the field. He hung around the dressing-room for a further 10 or so minutes, sitting with his head thrown back before exiting Wankhede, with some question marks still over if he’ll be good enough to take the field on Tuesday.
The focus and attention were zeroed in on one vital person when Afghanistan were training as well. But this had nothing to do with injury or illness. It was instead all about Sachin Tendulkar’s arrival at his home-ground, where his statue was inaugurated only days ago, to have a chat with the Afghanistan players. For the next hour or so, it was Tendulkar, whose movements were being monitored through the binoculars as he went from holding court for the entire team to then having one-on-one chats with Rashid Khan, Hashmatullah Shahidi and the other players. There was also time for a lot of selfies, as every member of the Afghanistan camp jumped at the opportunity of getting clicked with the Indian legend.
While Smith and Tendulkar captured most of the attention during the two teams’ practice sessions on the eve of the match, there was also an added intensity to training in both camps in the lead-up to what is a crucial contest for both. A win for Australia will confirm a place in the semifinals for the five-time champions. An Afghanistan victory though will not only keep them in contention, but it’ll also throw open the table, with the pressure then shifting squarely on New Zealand and Pakistan in their respective last matches.
The two teams have had rather contrasting campaigns to this point. Australia have recovered from an early stutter to win five on the trot, all but one of them rather convincingly too. Afghanistan have been the form team though with the best part about their performances being how professional and cerebral they have been with bat and ball. It’s meant that for once, it’s their cricket and not their back stories that have dominated all talk around their impressive display so far. And after having run close the Aussies close in Adelaide during their T20 World Cup clash last year, they’ll back themselves to do the same here, maybe even get over the line against them.
Squads:
Australia Squad: Travis Head, David Warner, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis(w), Cameron Green, Marcus Stoinis, Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Sean Abbott, Alex Carey
Afghanistan Squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ikram Alikhil(w), Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad, Najibullah Zadran, Naveen-ul-Haq, Abdul Rahman, Riaz Hassan