One team that has shown will, heart and determination to push above their weight at this year’s T20 World Cup is Afghanistan, and per their head coach Jonathan Trott, they haven’t played their best cricket yet. Winning three out of three matches, including beating New Zealand by a daunting margin of 84 runs and Uganda by a whopping 125 runs in their tournament opener, tells a lot about their unit and how far they have come in this format.

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Afghanistan’s third win came against the spirited PNG side by seven wickets on Friday (June 14), with their bowling attack coming to the rescue once again. 

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A predominantly spin-heavy attack led by captain Rashid Khan, Afghanistan hasn’t allowed its opponents to take control of the proceedings across both innings in three matches played. However, their best bowler has been their seamer, Fazalhaq Farooqi, who has picked nine wickets thus far. 

Praising the side for playing exceptional cricket throughout, Trott said, “I believe we are very talented, and when we play our best cricket, we can take on anyone. We have seen that. I feel that we still haven’t played our best game, and there are things we still need to work on. We will be working on those over the next few days to give ourselves the best chance to beat the major teams.”

It’s about to get exciting

Not feeling complacent about their place on the points table in their group, Afghanistan knows the challenges that await them, including facing co-host West Indies in their last league match. 

Later, Afghanistan will take on the Men in Blue in their first of the three Super 8 matches on June 20 in Barbados. Considering the top form their bowlers and openers are in (who scored two back-to-back hundred-plus stands), they will enter the contest against India as tough opponents, if not favourites.

“We still have one game left, an important group game against the powerful West Indies side, who won an incredible game (vs New Zealand) last night from the position they were in. It’s nice to have won tonight and got a qualification. To come to a World Cup and win three is a nice feeling, but also the realisation of the reality that we haven’t won anything yet. We have got some important cricket matches coming up in which we have to play well,” Trott said.

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