Uganda opt to bowl on their World Cup debut

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Afghanistan picked three spinners – captain Rashid, Mujeeb and Nabi – but there was no room for Noor Ahmad

Toss Uganda opt to bowl vs Afghanistan

Uganda captain Brian Masaba won the toss and opted to bowl in their first World Cup game, against Afghanistan at the Providence. They picked a side with plenty of allrounders and spinners including Riazat Shah, Dinesh Nakrani, Alpesh Ramjani and Henry Ssenyondo. Masaba expected spin to play a part like it did in the West Indies-PNG game at this venue on Sunday.

Afghanistan picked three spinners – captain Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi – but there was no room for Noor Ahmad. Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Azmatullah Omarzai and Gulbadin Naib were the seam-bowling options for them. Afghanistan are one of the tournament’s dark horses, especially after their excellent showing in the ODI World Cup last year. However, they have a stiff group to tackle at this World Cup with co-hosts West Indies and New Zealand also in Group C.

Uganda qualified for this World Cup ahead of Zimbabwe via the Africa Qualifier tournament last year, where they beat Zimbabwe by five wickets and finished second on the seven-team points table.

Afghanistan: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Gulbadin Naib, 4 Azmatullah Omarzai, 5 Mohammad Nabi, 6 Najibullah Zadran, 7 Rashid Khan (capt), 8 Karim Janat, 9 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi

Uganda: 1 Roger Mukasa, 2 Simon Ssesazi (wk), 3 Ronak Patel, 4 Riazat Shah, 5 Dinesh Nakrani, 6 Robinson Obuya, 7 Alpesh Ramjani, 8 Brian Masaba (capt), 9 Bilal Hassan, 10 Cosmas Kyewuta, 11 Henry Ssenyondo

Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84