Toss Ireland elected to bowl v Afghanistan
William Porterfield won the toss and elected to bowl, days after Ireland chased down 257 after being 73 for 4. They made no changes to the XI that helped them level the series on 1-1 after the third ODI.
Afghanistan made four changes to the team that lost, strengthening in particular their pace reserves. Dawlat Zadran, their only frontline seamer in the last match, was dropped, as was Samiullah Shinwari who played as the fourth spinner.
In their places came medium-pacers Gulbadin Naib and Aftab Alam. Hashmatullah Shahidi and Mohammad Shahzad were dropped among the batsmen, with Noor Ali coming in as an opener and Ikram Ali Khil taking the gloves from Shahzad.
Afghanistan: 1 Hazratullah Zazai, 2 Noor Ali, 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Asghar Afghan (capt.), 5 Najibullah Zadran, 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Ikram Ali Khil (wk), 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Gulbadin Naib, 10 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 11 Aftab Alam
Ireland: 1 William Porterfield (capt.), 2 Paul Stirling, 3 Andy Balbirnie, 4 Simi Singh, 5 Kevin O’Brien, 6 Stuart Poynter (wk), 7 George Dockrell, 8 Andy McBrine, 9 Tim Murtagh, 10 James Cameron-Dow, 11 Boyd Rankin