Toss Ireland chose to bowl v Afghanistan
Ireland wore a fresh look in the first T20I against Afghanistan, having included the 18-year-old Joshua Little, a left-arm fast-bowling allrounder, and the 24-year old fast bowler Tyrone Kane in their XI.
Afghanistan also made changes from their previous T20I against Bangladesh in June, bringing in top-order batsman Hazratullah Zazai and left-arm spinner Fareed Ahmad.
A drizzle at the Bready Cricket Club had delayed the toss and start by an hour, shortening the match to an 18-overs-a-side affair. It was no surprise that Gary Wilson chose to stick Afghanistan in on winning the toss, with a heavy cloud cover and teams preferring to chase in shortened matches.
Ireland were without fast bowler Boyd Rankin, who was suffering from a back niggle before the start of the match. They have already played six T20Is this year, but won only one. Afghanistan, ranked No .8 to Ireland’s 17, also have Rashid Khan, the world’s top-ranked T20I bowler in their arsenal.
Afghanistan 1 Mohammad Shahzad (wk) 2 Usman Ghani 3 Hazratullah Zazai 4 Asghar Afghan (capt) 5 Samiullah Shenwari 6 Najibullah Zadran 7 Mohammad Nabi 8 Rashid Khan 9 Mujeeb Ur Rahman 10 Aftab Alam 11 Fareed Ahmad
Ireland 1 Paul Stirling 2 Gary Wilsom (capt & wk) 3 William Porterfield 4 Andy Balbirnie 5 Simi Singh 6 Tyrone Kane 7 Kevin O’Brien 8 Josh Little 9 Stuart Thompson 10 George Dockrell 11 Peter Chase
Source: ESPN Crickinfo