England v Afghanistan prediction, Cricket World Cup 2023, where to watch, squads

Rashid Khan of Afghanistan celebrates taking a wicket. Photo / Getty Images

Defending champions England are one win, one loss - Afghanistan have lost both of their opening matches. World Cup form is everything and the Afghans have fallen victim to their lack of ODI fixtures.

Individually, Afghanistan are one of the more talented sides at the World Cup - as a unit, they seem to lack the cohesion to put together a 50 over innings, particularly with bat in hand.

England did not need to experience defeat in their opener to narrow their focus, but it does mean they will not take Afghanistan lightly.

This will be only the third meeting between these two teams in the format, both previous occasions coming in World Cups. Eoin Morgan’s 17 sixes at Manchester in 2019 blasted England to a score of 397 for 6 batting first, a total they threatened to better against Bangladesh last time out before stumbling through the back end of their 50 overs.

History

The head to head between the two sides is led by England in ODI cricket. Both sides have played a total of 2 matches in their 8-year ODI cricket rivalry. England has a 2-0 win/loss record over Afghanistan in these matches.

TAB odds

Australia $1.12 South Africa $6.00

How to watch

Sky Sport 2 from 9.00pm tonight, the Herald will have live updates.

Herald prediction

England by 6 wickets/80 runs.

Squads

England: (possible) 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 Dawid Malan, 3 Joe Root, 4 Harry Brook, 5 Jos Buttler (capt & wk), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Mark Wood, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Reece Topley

Afghanistan: (possible) 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), 5 Azmatullah Oarzai, 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Najibullah Zadran, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi