New Zealand vs Afghanistan - Match Preview: New Zealand will face of Afghanistan in the 21st match of the T20 World Cup 2022 Super 12 on Wednesday, October 26, from 1:30 PM IST onwards at the MCG.

Williamson-led New Zealand coming up from a massive victory against the defending champions Aussies. Meanwhile, on the other hand, Afghanistan is coming from a defeat against England in their opening encounter of the tournament.

Also Read: T20 World Cup 2022: Top 5 Players to watch out for in the tournament

Make your dream11 team prediction and every Fantasy League prediction with our fantasy cricket tips and suggestions. Get early updates, game previews, team news, guidance, and prediction for your fantasy team in our entire section Fantasy Sports.

New Zealand vs Afghanistan: Super 12 Match Preview

Match Details:-

Match: New Zealand vs Afghanistan - Super 12 Group 1 (Match 21)
Venue: Melbourne Cricket Ground, MCG.
Date & Time: October 26, 2022 at 1:30 PM (IST)
Where to Watch Live: Star Sports Network and JIO TV.

Pitch Report: New Zealand vs Afghanistan

The Melbourne Cricket Ground's pitch usually offers some nice pace and bounce but the batters do get value for their shots. The long boundaries mean that the batters should be fit enough to do a lot of running. The wicket has some nice carry and the pacers will find help from the pitch.

So, basically, it is a sporting wicket for both the batters and bowlers. Melbourne has experienced a few spells of rain in recent times and the forecast for this game isn't encouraging as well. Let's hope for some mercy from the rain gods and we get a full game.

Read Also: Most Man of the Match award winners in T20 World Cup

Head-to-Head Stats: (T20 World Cup)

Matches Played: 01
Won by New Zealand: 01
Won by Afghanistan: 00

Team News:

New Zealand:

New Zealand started off their T20 World Cup campaign with a huge victory against the Aussies. However, now Kane and his men will be looking to keep the momentum forward. The batters outplayed the Australian side in the last game. Finn Allen(42) and Devon Conway(92) both played crucial knocks in their 89 runs victory against the Aussies.

Meanwhile, Tim Southee and Mitchel Santner were the standout bowlers in the game as both picked three wickets each. Rest three bowlers, Boult, Rashid, and Sodhi also returned with wickets. The all-around performance of the Kiwi side results in a huge net run rate boost. Now, they will face Afghanistan at the MCG, will they be able to keep their momentum going?

Also Read: T20 World Cup 2022: New Zealand Team Preview

Afghanistan:

Meanwhile, for Afghanistan, it's time for a comeback after a defeat in the opening encounter. The reason for the failure of the Afghan side was batting. Batsman gradually failed to score runs in the first innings and as a result, they lost the game. The bowlers did their best to restrict the England batters till the end was phenomenal.

Every Afghan bowler took a wicket each but that wasn't enough to restrict the English side. Nabi and his men will be now eyeing to get back into winning ways so as to stay alive in the knockout race. Will they be able to challenge the in form New Zealand side? We will surely look into it at the MCG on Wednesday.

New Zealand vs Afghanistan: Super 12: Possible Playing XI

New Zealand:

Finn Allen
Devon Conway (wk)
Kane Williamson (C)
Glenn Phillips
Mark Chapman
Jimmy Neesham
Mitchell Santner
Tim Southee
Ish Sodhi
Lockie Ferguson
Trent Boult

Afghanistan:

Hazratullah Zazai
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk)
Ibrahim Zadran
Usman Ghani
Najibullah-Zadran
Mohammad Nabi (C)
Azmatullah Omarzai
Rashid Khan
Mujeeb-ur-Rahman
Fazal Haq
Fareed Malik

Read Also: T20 World Cup 2022: Top 4 favorites to win the title

Super 12: Fantasy Cricket Dream11 Team Prediction: New Zealand vs Afghanistan:

You must change your team if these players aren't announced in the starting lineup.

After two days of exciting show auction in Jeddah, the ten Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises were able to pick their squad for the IPL 2025. Rishabh Pant came out as the most expensive player in IPL auction's history with a humongous INR 27 cr bid from Lucknow Super Giants while Shreyas Iyer was the first player ever to get a 25 cr plus deal in an IPL auction.

Shreyas Iyer, the IPL 2024 winning captain received a 26.75 cr bid from Punjab Kings, who had released most of their players during the retention and wanted a captain in their squad. Along with him, Punjab Kings with the highest money in the purse before the auction, were responsible for three of the top 10 most expensive bids. They first brought back their fast bowler Arshdeep Singh for INR 18 cr and after Shreyas Iyer's bid, they made Yuzvendra Chahal the most expensive spinner in IPL history.

Chahal, who everyone thought could go back to RCB, was eventually bought by Punjab Kings for a whooping INR 18 cr, which was the fourth-highest bid of the auction. Meantime, the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders surprised everyone after buying back Venkatesh Iyer for INR 23 cr. They nearly fought a bidding war with Royal Challengers Bangalore to bring him back to Eden Gardens.

Jos Buttler was another marquee player, who was supposed to be big in the auction and he was Gujarat Titan's highest bid of the season at INR 15.75 cr. KL Rahul, went to Delhi Capitals for INR 14 cr, which everyone thought was another case of RCB not going all-out for a player. 

Trent Boult reunited with Jasprit Bumrah at Mumbai Indians, after the five-time champions decided to spend most of their money on retaining their core group of players. The Kiwi pacer was sold for INR 12.5 cr. Aussie pacer Josh Hazlewood also attracted the same amount of money from RCB, who were looking for a good fast bowler, after they let Mohammed Siraj go in the retention and auction as well. 

Top 10 most expensive players in IPL 2025 auction

The form of Indian cricket team's star batsman Virat Kohli is proving to be a matter of concern for Team India. After the poor performance in the three-match home series against New Zealand, India has a lot of expectations from its former captain. Kohli's record in Australia has been excellent. However, in the first innings of the Perth Test match, Virat has disappointed the team and his fans.

Also Read: Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Jasprit Bumrah breaks record with five-wicket haul in first test

Kohli dropped Labuschagne's catch

Virat Kohli played an innings of 5 runs in 12 balls and was out on the ball of Josh Hazlewood. Apart from this, Kohli also dropped the catch during Indian bowling. He dropped an easy catch of Marnus Labuschagne on the ball of Jasprit Bumrah. This brilliant ball found the edge of Labuschagne's bat, on which Kohli did not make much movement and dropped the ball in a hurry to take the catch.

Kohli dropped 29.6% of his catches

Virat is generally considered a good fielder but among the players who have got at least 100 chances since 2011, Kohli has the highest catches dropped percentages among Indian players. This figure also raises questions on Kohli's catching ability.

Kohli has dropped 29.6 percent of his catches in this period and only the England Test great James Anderson is ahead of him in terms of the catches dropped percentages. However, Anderson is a bowler who was never known for his fielding abilities. If we talk only about batsmen, then Virat Kohli has dropped the maximum number of catches since 2011.

Also Read: AUS vs IND Border-Gavaskar Trophy Day 1 report: India bounce back with bowlers with 17 wickets falling on Day 1

Kohli dropped the most catches in the last 5 years

From 2019 till now, Virat Kohli has been the number one Indian in terms of dropping catches. This trend has continued in all three formats of cricket. Kohli has dropped a total of 36 catches in international cricket since 2019. He has dropped 16 catches in Tests, 13 catches in T20I, and 7 catches in ODI format. 

Highest catches dropped percentages since 2011 | Min 100 chances

• 31.7% James Anderson
• 29.6% Virat Kohli
• 27.9% Alastiar Cook
• 25.7% Tim Southee

Afghanistan's star all-rounder Mohammad Nabi will retire from ODI cricket after the Champions Trophy 2025 to be held in Pakistan. Afghanistan Cricket Board Chief Executive Naseeb Khan gave this information on Friday.

Also Read: Most Player of the Match awards in T20I cricket history

"Yes, Nabi is retiring from ODIs after the Champions Trophy and he informed the board about his desire," Naseeb told Cricbuzz. "He told me few months back that he wants to end his ODI career after the Champions Trophy and we welcome his decision. After the Champions Trophy, what I understand is that, he is expected to continue his T20 career, and that is the plan until now," he added.

However, after the Champions Trophy 2025, Nabi will continue to play for Afghanistan in T20 cricket. Mohammad Nabi is currently a part of the Afghanistan team, where he is playing the ODI series against Bangladesh in Sharjah. Afghanistan team won the first ODI by 92 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the series.

Nabi had taken 84 runs and one wicket in 79 balls in the first ODI. Now the second and third ODI matches are to be played on November 9 and November 11 respectively.

Nabi's ODI career

Nabi is one of the most experienced players of Afghanistan's ODI team. He made an impact by scoring a half-century in his first ODI against Scotland in 2009. Nabi has so far scored 3,549 runs in 165 ODI matches and has also taken 171 wickets with one 5-wicket haul to his name.

Recently, in the first match of the three-match ODI series against Bangladesh, Nabi scored a brilliant 82 runs. Due to which his team was able to score a strong score and then defended it with the help of Allah Ghazanfar's six wickets.

Also Read: Most wickets in every T20 World Cup edition

Took retirement from Test in 2019

Senior all-rounder Nabi had announced his retirement from Test cricket in 2019. While playing only 3 matches in Test, he has taken 33 runs with the bat and 8 wickets with the ball. Apart from this, he has also shown his talent in 24 matches of IPL. Nabi has scored 215 runs in this league at a fast strike rate of 143.33 and has also taken 15 wickets in bowling. Nabi has led the Afghanistan cricket team to victory on many occasions with his experience and all-round play.

The Champions Trophy 2025 is slated to begin on February 19, 2025, with Pakistan facing New Zealand in Karachi.

Is it the end of Rohit-Kohli? How can India qualify for the WTC final? Who else whitewashed India at home? Here are all the answers you need as Tom Latham's New Zealand defeated India by 3-0 in the recently concluded series. 

First of all, here are all the records which were made and shattered in the India vs New Zealand series. 

• This is the first time New Zealand won a test series in India.
• This is the first time since 2000 that India have been whitewashed in a home test series.
• New Zealand have become the fourth country to whitewash India in a three or more-match home test series alongside Australia, England and West Indies.
• This was the fourth time India were unable to chase down a total below 200 in a test match.

When was the last time India were whitewashed in a home test series?

South Africa were the last team who were able to whitewash India in a home test series in 200. At that time, Sachin Tendulkar was the captain of the team and India were going through a tough time with the match-fixing scandal around Mohhamed Azharuddin and a few other cricketers. 

South Africa defeated India in the first test in Mumbai and then continued their domination in Chennai in the second test as well.

Is it the end of the road for Rohit-Kohli?

With the form both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli shown in the India vs New Zealand test series, it is very likely that both the Indian batters have played their last test series at home. India will play their next home test series in October next year and with the backup players performing, it would be hard for them to keep their place in the team.

Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Ruturaj Gaikwad have been waiting for a long time and it is time now that the team management grooms these top-order batters for test cricket. 

Read Also | Most Hundreds in Test cricket among active players | Test cricket stats

How can India qualify for the WTC Final?

As per the current WTC points table, six teams still can qualify for the World Test Championship Final in 2025. India will have to beat Australia by 4-0 or 5-0 to be able to qualify for the final. If they lose any test in Australia, teams like Sri Lanka, South Africa or New Zealand will get the upper hand in qualifying for the final alongside Australia.

The Indian Men's Cricket Team have already lost their series to New Zealand after losing the first two tests. With that, India's home test series wins ended. However, India still tops the list with 18 home series wins.

The 18th win came against Bangladesh after a 2-0 whitewash against them.

Here's the list of the top five teams with the most consecutive Test series wins at home

India leads the chart with 18 series wins, followed by Australia twice in the list, having 10 wins each time. 

New Zealand | 8

New Zealand, standing 5th in the table, has 8 home series wins to their name. Starting from December 2017 to January 2021. The team led by Kane Williamson had a perfect combination with the likes of Tim Southee, Trent Boult, and Ross Taylor, perfectly complementing the spin-friendly pitches, allowing the team to capitalize on the home advantage.

West Indies | 8

Once a terror in World Cricket, the time span of West Indian dominance in test cricket clearly defines the legacy of the team.

The Clive Lloyd-led team, having shoulders of greats like Viv Richards and bowling legend Malcolm Marshall, had its winning streak of 8 series at home from March 1976 to February 1986.

Australia | 10 each

Another ruling team in World Cricket that successfully carried forward their once-created legacy is Australia. Australia is in the chart twice, having 10 consecutive home series wins.

The first phase started from October 1994 to November 2000. A little gap in between, and then the winning streak continued from July 2004 to November 2008.

India | 18

After the Kanpur test win against Bangladesh, for the first time after 92 years of Test cricket history, India had more test wins than losses.

Not only that, India's series winning streak at home increased to 18, making it an undisputed contender amongst the world giants.