Men’s T20 World Cup 2024: Group C preview – West Indies, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea & Uganda

ICC T20 world ranking: 10th

T20 World Cup appearances: Six

Best T20 World Cup performance: Round two (2016, 2021 & 2022)

Captain: Rashid Khan

Head coach: Jonathan Trott

Form (most recent last): LWLWW

Group fixtures (all times BST): Uganda (4 June, 01:30), New Zealand (8 June, 00:30), Papua New Guinea (14 June, 01:30) & West Indies (18 June, 01:30)

Batter to watch: Rahmanullah Gurbaz

Dynamic opening batter Gurbaz has been plying his trade in various franchise leagues across the globe, including the Indian Premier League (IPL), Major League Cricket (MLC) and ILT20.

In the powerplay he will look to take on seam bowlers down the ground and pounce on any bowlers who overpitch.

Since the end of the last World Cup, Gurbaz has more than double the number of runs than any other Afghanistan batter (1,504) and achieved this at a strike-rate of 143.

Bowler to watch: Rashid Khan

Widely regarded as the best T20 bowler operating today, Rashid’s skills are in high demand across T20 franchise leagues globally.

His brand of fast and direct mystery spin has been puzzling batters over his nine-year international career.

Across this World Cup cycle, his wickets have come at an average of just below 20 and at a miserly economy rate under seven.

No bowler has taken more T20 wickets this decade than him either.