Afghanistan ask South Africa to bat; Noor and Linde come in to bolster spin attacks

South Africa could practically knock Afghanistan out of the T20 World Cup if they win and ensure progress for themselves and New Zealand

Toss Afghanistan chose to field vs South Africa

Rashid Khan won the toss and elected to bowl on a fresh pitch in his quasi home ground of Ahmedabad in Afghanistan's T20 World Cup match against South Africa in Ahmedabad on Wednesday morning.

This is practically a must-win match for Afghanistan after they lost their tournament opener to New Zealand. The schedule has been unforgiving on last edition's losing semi-finalists, rushing them into their two big matches in the group of death in the first round.

Afghanistan's opponents on the day are the ones who beat them comprehensively in the semi-final in the 2024 T20 World Cup in Trinidad. This time, South Africa could practically knock Afghanistan out of the competition if they win and ensure progress for themselves and New Zealand.

Seeing as it's a morning match, both sides strengthened their respective spin departments. Left-arm wristspinner Noor Ahmad replaced Ziaur Rahman for Afghanistan, and George Linde took the place of Corbin Bosch.

For Rashid, the Afghanistan captain, it could end up becoming a special occasion personally, as he is on 697 T20 wickets and could become the first to the 700-wicket mark in the format.

South Africa hold a formidable 3-0 head-to-head record against Afghanistan.

Afghanistan: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Gulbadin Naib, 4 Sediqullah Atal, 5 Darwish Rasooli, 6 Azmatullah Omarzai, 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan (capt), 9 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 10 Noor Ahmad, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi

South Africa: 1 Aiden Markram (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Ryan Rickelton, 4 Dewald Brevis, 5 David Miller, 6 Tristan Stubbs, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 George Linde, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Keshav Maharaj, 11 Lungi Ngidi