Afghanistan will be looking to turn their fortunes around in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2019 when they take on hosts England in their group stage encounter in Southampton on Tuesday. The Gulbadin Naib-led side has lost all of their four encounters till now and are placed at the bottom of the points table with a net run rate of -1.638.

In their previous encounter, Imran Tahir starred in South Africa’s impressive bowling performance over Afghanistan, leading the Proteas to their first win of the World Cup.Tahir (4/29) triggered Afghanistan’s dramatic batting collapse which saw them being bundled out for 125 in 34.1 overs from 56 for one in the 16th over.

South Africa, in another rain affected tie that was reduced to 48 overs a side after the second interruption, chased down the paltry target in 28.1 overs with openers Quinton de Kock (68) and Hashim Amla (41 not out) sharing a 104-run stand.For Afghanistan, it was their fourth loss in as many games after another disappointing batting show.

Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib urged his batsmen to remain calm in the middle and play full 50 overs after yet another collapse saw them go down to South Africa by nine wickets.

“Every time I’m saying to the batsman, control your nerves. We need calm cricket in the middle. Everyone is trying to put a score on the board so we have an opportunity to defend it. We did not play a 50-over game because we did not last. We have played a lot of cricket in the last few years but there is pressure on the team. We lost the toss so we did not take responsibility enough and that was the difference,” he said after the match.

There is unlikely to be any changes to the playing XI for Afghanistan but they will be looking to improve their performance drastically. England are in brilliant form at this point and anything less than a brilliant show will not be enough to stop the winning run of the hosts.

Afghanistan Predicted XI: Hamid Hassan, Asghar Afghan, Mohammad Nabi, Noor Ali Zadran, Aftab Alam, Gulbadin Naib (c), Hashmatullah Shahidi, Rahmat Shah, Rashid Khan, Ikram Ali Khil (wk), Hazratullah Zazai.

First Published: Jun 17, 2019 18:29 IST