Abu Dhabi: Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan won the toss and elected to bat against Hong Kong in the Asia Cup opener at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium here Tuesday.
Afghanistan, coming off a defeat to Pakistan in the tri-series final earlier this week, brought Gulbadin Naib into the XI in place of Darwish Rasooli.
“It looks like a good wicket to put runs on the board, good total on the board will help the bowlers,” Rashid said after the toss.
“In T20 it does not matter if you win the toss or not, but you have to give yourself the best opportunity to pick wickets in the middle period.
“It (defeat against Pakistan) is already behind us, we are well focussed on the game today, even if we had won the final we would have focussed on the game today and how to win,” he added.
Teams:
Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz (w), Sediqullah Atal, Ibrahim Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan (c), Noor Ahmad, AM Ghazanfar, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Hong Kong: Zeeshan Ali (wk), Babar Hayat, Anshy Rath, Kalhan Challu, Aizaz Khan, Nizakat Khan, Kinchit Shah, Yasim Murtaza (c), Ayush Shukla, Ateeq Iqbal, Ehsan Khan.
