Piture Credit: Twitter
Afghanistan will be facing a huge challenge of playing England in their very first match of T20 WC 2022 at Perth. England team who was one of the favorites to lift the T20 WC in this edition have a huge chance to become title winners for 2nd time despite missing some of their key players.
English skipper Jos Buttler's form with the bat would be very crucial for their team to move forward in this tournament and another destructive opening batter Alex Hales has returned to English T20I side after a period 3 and a half years. England middle-order batting line-up is also equally destructive with the likes of Liam Livingstone, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali.
Afghanistan have shown some glimpses of good performance in the opening match of recently concluded Asia Cup 2022 by beating Sri Lankan team in a convincing manner but defeating a very established side like England will be an uphill task for them despite having a good bowling attack and fire power in their batting line-up.
Afghan team's limited potential might be a huge weakness for them while facing English team but still we might witness a very interesting game in early stage of T20 WC 2022 itself with the likes of Rashid Khan, Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz playing in the XI for Afghanistan.
Numbers and stats before start of ENG vs AFG game:
Head-to-Head in T20Is:
Played - 2
England - 2
Afghanistan - 0
4 - Rashid Khan has dismissed Jos Buttler 4 times in T20 cricket.
Jos Buttler vs Rashid Khan in T20s:
Inns - 9
Runs - 31
Balls - 49
Dots - 21
Outs - 4
Since 2020, Rashid Khan hasn't dismissed Buttler even once in T20s. Rashid Khan dismissed Buttler in T20s all 4 times during 2018-19 period only.
7 - Jos Buttler needs 7 more runs to overtake Kevin Pietersen and become the leading run-scorer for England in men's T20 World Cup.
Most runs for England in men's T20 WC:
Kevin Pietersen - 580 (15 inns)
Jos Buttler - 574 (21 inns)
Eoin Morgan - 552 (27 inns)
10 - England have won 10 T20I matches in 2022 so far.
Most matches won by England team in a calendar year in men's T20I:
11 in 2021
10 in 2022
8 in 2010
8 in 2020
25 - Ben Stokes needs 25 more runs to complete 500 runs in T20Is.
33 - Liam Livingstone needs 33 more runs to complete 5000 runs in T20s overall.
72 - Rashid Khan has taken most T20 wickets (all T20s counted) in the year 2022 so far.
Most wickets in men's T20 during 2022:
Rashid Khan - 72
Dwayne Bravo - 61
Jason Holder / Obed McCoy - 59
1000 - Moeen Ali needs 13 more runs to complete 1000 runs in T20Is. Hazratullah Zazai needs 40 more runs to complete 1000 runs in T20Is overall.
Most runs for Afghanistan in men's T20I:
Mohammad Shahzad - 2015
Mohammad Nabi - 1669
Najibullah Zadran - 1559
Asghar Afghan - 1382
Samiullah Shinwari - 1013
Hazratullah Zazai - 960
1489 - Alex Hales has smashed 1489 T20 runs in 2022 so far.
Most men's T20 runs in 2022 so far:
Mohammad Rizwan - 1642 (37 inns)
Alex Hales - 1489 (48 inns)
Shan Masood - 1468 (46 inns)
