Afghanistan In Asia Cup 2022
Afghanistan is that one team in the Asia Cup 2022 that made us watch the game and cheer for them. The team has passed a lot of troubles in the past and their performance and zeal in the tournament was something to be in awe of. The team won all its league matches but failed at the right time. But even in those matches, they gave strong oppositions such intense competition, that they garnered new fans that very day.
Well the team’s game has improved a lot but there is still a lot to learn. A few players like Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Rahmatullah Gurbaz, have collected some experience by playing international leagues like IPL, BBL, CPL, etc. The players talked about the same when asked how they had such a team which shows clear intention of hitting the ball and also has the ability to make it happen.
But for players to gain experience at world level as a team, there is something more important that the ICC cricketing system has to consider, which is, to have them play cricket with bigger, older teams.
Since 2021, Afghanistan’s sole bilateral series opponents have been Ireland, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe. Their first trip to Australia, which had been initially delayed until 2020 due to COVID-19, was cancelled in late 2017. Prior to the Asia Cup, their previous opportunities to play against Full Members came in the 2019 World Cup in England, where they came close to defeating India and were in complete control until losing to Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Afghanistan’s assistant coach Raees Ahmadzai has pleaded with the ICC and other Full Members to play them frequently in order to help them build quality, better game sense, and the capacity to win games under duress.
Ahmadzai said, “It’s important for a team like us to play against top-level teams. It’s not easy. I can’t remember when we last played India or Pakistan. Playing one or two matches against them in top-level tournaments is not enough. It will help if we play them more often.
“Only then can our players learn to control their emotions, control pressure and learn from [the experience]. I feel we deserve that. The way we started in the Asia Cup, giving a tough time to the other teams, I think we did well. Our win over Sri Lanka was a one-sided win, we beat Bangladesh. But we have to improve on the basics. Our players realise where we should be more focused so that we can finish the way we started.”
He further added, “If you’re playing against the big names, the big stars, you always get to learn a lot. During the tournament we spent some time with the Pakistani and Sri Lankan players also. It was a good experience, something our players can learn [from] and apply at the World Cup.”
It is obvious that when you play such intense matches you learn with that lived experience. “To be honest, everyone panicked in that situation [when Pakistan were nine down],” Ahmadzai revealed. But then we played back-to-back games, and we tried our best. The way we looked at the wicket, I thought we could restrict India to 170 or 180. But if you drop a catch of a good player like Kohli, he won’t give you too many opportunities.”
Afghanistan may reflect on several outstanding individual accomplishments. They demonstrated that their onslaught consisted of more than only spin superstars Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq, and Fareed Ahmed led their youthful fast bowling unit, which had some promise. We are ready to see more of these and against the bigger teams. It’ll be eventful to know how the team falres out in future now.
