England players repeatedly stressed the fact that they felt bad for the Afghanistan women's team and the political situation back in the country and hoped that the Wednesday match against the men in the Champions Trophy would bring some cheer and hope. Not for Afghanistan and the women cricketers, England at least have to win to bring some smiles to the faces back home in England as another early knockout for the white-ball team wouldn't look good on Jos Buttler, whose position as a captain is in real danger.
The South Africa-Australia washout in Rawalpindi cleared up things a bit in Group B as far as qualification is concerned. England-Afghanistan on Wednesday is now a knockout, the team losing the clash will not stay in the race for the semi-finals anymore while South Africa have the best net run rate so far, should it come down to that.
For England, however, they have lost one of their key pace assets in Brydon Carse for the remainder of the tournament. Jamie Overton is likely to return to the XI and England will hope to use the hardness of the Lahore tracks to their advantage with the pace of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer against Afghan batters. Afghanistan have a good bowling attack but their batters seemed a bit circumspect and England would fancy their chances to earn a couple of points here.
My Dream11 team for ICC Champions Trophy Match 8, AFG vs ENG
Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler, Jamie Smith, Joe Root (c), Sediqullah Atal, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood (vc), Mohammad Nabi
Probable Playing XIs
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqui
England: Phil Salt, Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith(wk), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler(wk), Liam Livingstone, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood