Afghanistan continue their winning ways

Afghanistan are on quite a roll as of late. They beat Zimbabwe in the ODI series and now win the T20 series, 2-0. The gap between the Associate teams and Zimbabwe has narrowed to the point where they are playing on a level field. Ireland pushed Zimbabwe close in their recent series and now Afghanistan have gone one step further and notched series wins.

Have Associate teams such as Afghanistan and Ireland progressed dramatically over the last year or have Zimbabwe regressed down to their level?

Big up to the Afghan cricketers who are making steady progress in cricket despite the turmoil that their home country has been over the last decade. I can't wait to see the day when they beat a team higher up the rankings. 

Do you think Afghanistan's recent victories over Zimabwe says more about their own improvement or Zimbabwe's decline?

Zim beat Ireland them and lose to Afghan.

Did Ireland decline ?

I would bet Ireland would beat Afghanistan  :-[

I was looking over Afghanistan's results over the last 2 years in ODIs and T20 cricket and I must admit, I was pretty impressed. Over the last 2 years, against the Associate Teams and Zimbabwe, Afghanistan have won 20 matches and lost 11. For comparison, Ireland have won 12 and lost 10. Not nearly as impressive. However, Ireland are 2-1 against Afghanistan over this period.

Afghanistan have been very good in T20 matches. Their record in T20 matches against the Associate's and Zimbabwe is 10 wins, 3 losses. Ireland have a losing record of 5 wins and 6 losses.

Afghanistan's record in ODI's against these teams is 10 wins, 8 losses. Ireland's ODI record is 7 wins, 4 losses. Ireland would appear to be the slightly better ODI team, whereas Afghanistan are a dramatically superior T20 team.

Well it would be very interesting to see them in the next t20 world cup because they could cause some damage in the shortest form of the game.

Afghanistan have already qualified for the first group stage of the T20 World Cup though only 2 teams will advance to the Super 10 Round. Based on recent performances, one would expect two of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Ireland to make it to the Super 10. Surprisingly, Bangladesh's recent T20 form has not been good, though one of their two wins in the last two years came against Afghanistan.