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With their disheartening loss to South Africa in the first semi-final, Afghanistan's ICC Men’s T20 World Cup journey comes to an end.
However, the Asian side has reveled in proving themselves on the global stage, and the last 12 months showcased the same.
In the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023, the Afghans toppled several top-ranked sides including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and England, finishing sixth in the league table of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.
Digital Daily | SA v AFG | T20WC 2024
In the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, they have turned it up a notch by qualifying for their maiden World Cup Semi-Final, defeating cricketing giants like New Zealand and Australia.
Focusing on the positives from their campaign, one of which was the fact that Afghanistan managed to reach the knockout stage of the competition, head coach Jonathan Trott shared his insights into how he expects the players to learn from it.
“I'm sure the guys hopefully learn from this experience, I think we've obviously got one better than the previous 50-over World Cup in November and it's just about taking it step by step and hopefully we learn from today, the batters certainly (will),” stated Trott in the post-match press conference.
“What it takes to play international cricket and play against a bowling side like South Africa on a pitch that's perhaps not conducive to high-scoring runs and finding ways of winning games. And we've found ways of winning games, we just couldn't find a way today.”
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The Afghans have displayed exceptional batting throughout the season with openers Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz leading the line.
The duo have recorded the second-highest first-wicket partnership in the T20 World Cup scoring 154 runs in their opening fixture against Uganda. With two more 100-plus runs partnerships, against New Zealand (103 runs), and Australia (118 runs), they have become only the second opening pair to register three 100-plus runs stand in the T20 World Cup, alongside Pakistani pair Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan.
Their four 50-plus partnerships in this edition of the tournament, are also the most by a pair in a single Men's T20 World Cup.
But, contradictory to the openers' performance, the middle order has not been up to the mark.
Trott believed that over-reliance on their openers was an area of concern for Afghanistan, that the side needed to address by getting in more quality top and middle-order batters.
“South Africa bowled pretty well and they knew how to be bowling the conditions once they saw how the pitch was behaving and I just think it's bad as we haven't fired really, the middle order hasn't fired enough this World Cup.
“We've perhaps been a bit too reliant on Gurbaz and Ibrahim to get runs. Nobody else has got runs. And we need to find a reason for that.”
“We need to get more batters in who are going to score runs and be more consistent like the openers have been and given us a chance in games. So that's the project for going forward.
“Certainly, in all formats as well, 50-over white-ball cricket as well, getting middle-order batters and top-order batters like we have at the openers with Ibrahim and Gurbaz. So that's the focus for now.”
While the Afghans have always been known for their spinners, the fast bowlers stood out in this campaign. Fazalhaq Farooqi (17 wickets), and Naveen-ul-Haq (13 wickets) made the best use of conducive conditions, especially during the night matches.
Trott gives due credit to West Indies legend Dwayne Bravo, who was the bowling consultant with the side for the duration of the tournament, and was seen deeply involved with the side during the games.
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“Dwayne's been immense and a great guy to have around the dressing room. Always calm, rubs off on the bowlers, and always willing to chat to the bowlers and batters as well.
“Very generous with his time and his passion for the side. I'd only ever played against Dwayne really before and I think he's a cracking coach and I love working with him and cricket’s in good hands if there are people like Dwayne coaching the game and coaching the skills and sharing their experience.”
“He's been brilliant and it's been great to have him with his professional attitude and I think that's certainly rubbed off on the players and they've seen what it takes to be at their best and play the amount of cricket that he has.”
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