Kandahar Knights vs Paktia Panthers Prediction

KDK Team News

Riki Wessels went straight into the starting line-up after his late addition to the squad, as Kandahar shuffled their overseas options. With Wahab Riaz, Sam Billings, Iftikhar Ahmed, Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Mithun all withdrawing after the player draft, Kandahar had found themselves light on options.

Mohammad Naveed also played in the last game, with he and Wessels replacing Kevin O’Brien and Tymal Mills. Karim Sadiq retained his place, scoring six – his first runs of the season – but with Wessels also taking over the gloves, Sadiq’s place is under threat. Wessels will surely bat higher in the batting order after his exploits against Kabul Zwanan, which could mean Sadiq dropping into the middle order.

Nasir Jamal made his first start of the tournament, meanwhile, and will likely be retained after scoring 38 in place of Waqar Salamkheil.

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Asghar Afghan seems to have found his batting rhythm, scoring 45 from 32 balls against Balkh Legends and then 52 from 32 against Kabul Zwanan last time out. The captain was the only middle-order batsman to stick around in the latter.

Riki Wessels came in at number eight, but after smashing an unbeaten 46 from 23 balls, as the Knights finished just two runs short of Kabul’s 173, he will expect to be pushed up the order.

Yet to score heavily but always a threat meanwhile is New Zealand’s T20 legend Brendon McCullum. He has scored 63 runs across his three innings so far, but he arrived in Afghanistan on the back of 43 and 39 in the final two Caribbean Premier League matches to help Trinbago Knight Riders to the title.

With the ball, Sayed Shirzad claimed 3-36 from his four overs to move to five wickets in the tournament so far, while Mohammad Naveed took 1-33 on his first appearance.

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Kandahar Knights have now lost their opening three games following the narrow defeat to Kabul Zwanan. They looked down and out in that game, but Riki Wessels’ 46 from 23 balls took them to within just two runs of a first win of the competition.

It was an improvement on the previous two games, during which they were restricted to just 139/9 in the first game on their way to a four-wicket loss and then could only make 152 in reply to Balkh Legends’ 165 in their second game, despite Asghar Afghan hitting 45 from 32 balls.