Chennai, Feb 19 (IANS) Canada won the toss and elected to bowl first against Afghanistan in their final Group D clash of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Thursday. The match also marks veteran batter Navneet Dhaliwal’s final game in international cricket.
Pacer Kaleem Sana is back in the Canadian playing eleven, in place of Shivam Sharma. “The wicket didn’t change much in the last game, and also because of the dew factor. We have to fight stronger with the ball and not concede too many loose balls,” said Canada skipper Dilpreet Bajwa.
He also revealed that apart from Dhaliwal, Ravinderpal Singh, who is not in the playing eleven, is also retiring from international cricket after Thursday’s clash. “Final game for them. It’s a very sad moment for Cricket Canada. Both of them are legends. One is our run machine, and one is our energy machine, so we are gonna miss them, and hopefully it is a good opportunity for upcoming youngsters in Canada,” added Bajwa.
Afghanistan too have one change, with Abdullah Amadzai coming in for left-arm wrist-spinner Noor Ahmad. “Not the kind of end we wanted in this competition, and I feel we have those skills, but just that game against South Africa put us down. We need to make the nation proud and want to finish off well,” said captain Rashid Khan.
Playing XIs
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Darwish Rasooli, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan (captain), Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Ziaur Rahman, and Abdullah Ahmadzai
Canada: Yuvraj Samra, Dilpreet Bajwa (captain), Navneet Dhaliwal, Harsh Thaker, Nicholas Kirton, Shreyas Movva (wk), Saad Bin Zafar, Dilon Heyliger, Jaskarandeep Singh, Kaleem Sana, and Ansh Patel
–IANS
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