PERTH: Afghanistan face their toughest test of the World Cup so far when they play four-time champions Australia here on Wednesday.

Afghanistan have been the ‘Cinderella’ story of this World Cup, with their maiden win — a thrilling one-wicket victory over Scotland in Dunedin last time out — one of the highlights of the competition so far.

But the pace and bounce of the WACA pitch is unlike any surface Afghanistan have experienced before and, in such fast bowlers as Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc, Australia have the attack to exploit the conditions.

It may well have been with this match in mind that International Cricket Council chief executive David Richardson said on Friday: “I’m pleased with the performances of the qualifiers so far, but the bigger tests are still to come.”

The following day the amateurs from the UAE were skittled out for just 102 at the WACA by defending champions India, whose pace attack is nothing like as intimidating as that of Australia.

“As everyone knows the UAE has been our home ground due to security reasons and the pitches in UAE are slow and favour spin,” said Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi told reporters at the WACA on Tuesday.

“Whereas tracks in Australia and New Zealand are very different, there is much more pace and bounce.” He said, “We are not scared of Australia, but we respect them because they have good attacking bowlers and good quality batsmen and fielders as well.”

AFGHANISTAN captain Mohammad Nabi speaks at a news conference ahead of the match against Australia.—AFP

However, Afghanistan’s last Pool A match against a Test nation saw them reduce Sri Lanka to 51 for four before Mahela Jayawardene’s hundred restored the status quo.

Furthermore, the likes of Hamid Hassan and Shapoor Zadran could find the WACA to their liking.

The more concerning issue is how Afghanistan’s batsmen will cope, although Samiullah Shenwari was in bullish mood about the prospect of playing Australia after his superb 96 set up the win over Scotland.

“Hopefully we’ll give them a tough time and we will not give up easy,” he said. “So we’re looking forward to giving them a tough time and looking forward to winning the match.”

Afghanistan still have a chance of gate-crashing the quarter-finals, standing just a point behind Australia after losing to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka before beating the Scots.

Australia need points on the board after their 111-run opening win over England was followed by a no-result washout against Bangladesh and last weekend’s thrilling one-wicket defeat by New Zealand in Auckland.

Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins is set to miss Wednesday’s match with a side strain, his place likely to go to Josh Hazlewood in an attack where Starc, who took six for 28 against New Zealand, is becoming increasingly influential.

Meanwhile, all-rounder Shane Watson, under renewed scrutiny after giving his wicket away cheaply in Auckland, could lose his place if James Faulkner regains full fitness.

Squads and officials:

AUSTRALIA: Michael Clarke (captain), George Bailey, David Warner, Aaron Finch, Shane Watson, Steven Smith, Brad Haddin (wkt), Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, James Faulkner, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Xavier Doherty.

AFGHANISTAN: Mohammad Nabi (captain), Afsar Zazai (wkt), Usman Ghani, Aftab Alam, Asghar Stanikzai, Dawlat Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Hamid Hasan, Javed Ahmadi, Najibullah Zadran, Nasir Jamal, Nawroz Mangal, Shapoor Zadran, Samiullah Shenwari, Shafiqullah Shafiq.

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (SRI), Michael Gough (ENG)

TV umpire: Billy Bowden (NZL)

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI).

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2015

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