Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi won a crucial toss and promptly elected to bat against five-time champions Australia, who were seeking a win to book their place in the semifinals. However, sixth-placed Afghanistan, who have beaten the current world champions England and two former champions Pakistan and Sir Lanka, were also chasing a spot in the last four stage and were not willing to give it away on a platter. Mitch Marsh and Glenn Maxwell returned to the squad and with Steve Smith sitting out this game owing to a serious bout of vertigo, all-rounder Marcus Stoinis retained his spot from the previous game, while Cameron Green missed out. Afghanistan has made one change with pacer Naveen ul Haq coming in as a like-for-like replacement for Fazalhaq Farooqi.
AFP