Benign Zimbabwe take on dominant Afghanistan with series at stake

A hapless Zimbabwe will have to produce some extraordinary performance with bat and ball both if they have to keep their hopes of series win alive against a dominant Afghanistan.

Zimbabwe are trailing 1-0 in the three-match series. A victory in the second match will seal the series for Afghanistan. All the odds are stacked against Zimbabwe.

Going by the past record, it looks improbable if not impossible for Zimbabwe.

Afghanistan have dominated Zimbabwe heavily in T20s. In head-to-head record, Afghanistan have notched up 16 wins in 18 T20s, dating back from 2014 in bilateral series.

Afghanistan defeated Zimbabwe in eight consecutive T20 matches from 2015-2021. It took Zimbabwe six years to break the jinx when they procured a victory in 2021 finally.

But the story did not end there. Their last win against Afghanistan came in 2024 after another losing streak of six matches and three long years. The wait is on since then again.

Both the rare wins have come batting second. Hence, Zimbabwe will have to pray for the toss to go in their favour so that they can choose to bat second.

Zimbabwe are not at par with their Asian counterparts, who are almost 20 years younger than they are in international cricket.

Afghanistan have outclassed their African rivals in all the departments of the game. The average batting total in the last 18 matches are 167 and 144 for Afghanistan and Zimbabwe respectively.

At the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, both the teams have faced off four times, with the result going in Afghanistan’s favour in all instances. The highest score by Afghanistan against Zimbabwe in T20s is 215, which came at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium only.

The only factor that goes in Zimbabwe’s favour is that their captain Sikander Raza is the highest scorer among the current players of both the teams.

Raza has piled up 370 runs. He is followed by Afghanistan batters for the next 10 places in the chart.

Most of Zimbabwe’s batting revolves around their captain. Their biggest problem in the recent past has been their opening stand. Openers will have to give a strong platform so that middle order can capitalize on it and post a fighting total of above 150, which is the average Afghanistan second innings total against them.

In bowling, star spinner Rashid Khan leads the chart with 32 scalps. He is followed by Zimbabwe’s Blessings Muzarabani with 14 wickets. To the dismay of Zimbabwe, their most successful bowler is not in the fold. Despite all the odds stacked against them, there is still a lot to play for because cricket is by chance.