New Zealand vs Afghanistan at T20 World Cup: Form, head-to-head, team news

New Zealand finally get their T20 World Cup campaign underway in Friday’s clash with Afghanistan.

Who: New Zealand vs Afghanistan
What: ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 Group C match
When: Friday, June 7, 7:30pm local (23:30 GMT)
Where: Providence Stadium, Georgetown, Guyana
How to follow: Al Jazeera will have live text coverage of the match from 4:30pm (20:30 GMT).

New Zealand finally kickstart their T20 World Cup campaign in Friday’s late evening clash in Guyana, as they face a skilful Afghanistan side in one of the most challenging fixtures of Group C.

Afghanistan got their tournament under way with a resounding 125-run victory over Uganda at the same venue on Tuesday.

A win against the Kiwis would put them in pole position for qualification for the Super 8 stage from a group, which also includes West Indies, who co-host this edition with USA, and Papua New Guinea.

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson knows the challenge Afghanistan could throw at them, especially their bowling unit, led by world renowned leg spinner Rashid Khan.

“They have such a skilful team, one of the better bowling attacks in the competition,” Williamson told reporters. “And we’ve seen that in franchise competitions: the involvement, the number of Afghan players. They’re getting better and better.”

Six months ago, at the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India, Afghanistan finished sixth in the 10-team competition, above defending champions England. Their fearless brand of cricket makes Afghanistan one of the dark horses at the T20 tournament.

“They’re getting more and more top-level cricket. And we saw at the last World Cup how strong they were in the one-day international format too. So, (they have) a really highly skilled team and a number of threats,”