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Afghanistan's steady rise in international cricket has caught the attention of cricketing greats, with former South African pacer Dale Steyn expressing confidence in their ability to win an ICC tournament within the next decade. However, he emphasized that for this to become a reality, the team must develop greater patience both individually and collectively, accoreding to ESPNcricinfo.
The Afghans showcased their potential with a thrilling victory over England in Lahore during the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. However, they fell short of a semi-final spot, suffering an opening defeat to South Africa and finding themselves in a precarious position against Australia before rain disrupted the contest. "Back in the day, a lot of players would go play county cricket," Steyn said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo. "Or they would go play first-class cricket to improve their skills and improve their patience really. I think we live in a time now where people are not patient enough. We can hardly watch two seconds on an Instagram story and it just feels like the Afghanistan players are similar when they're playing their cricket," he added. "They want things to happen so quickly. This ball must be a wicket, there's no patience to building up and taking a wicket. And sometimes, the batters are the same, they're batting in the first over. There's so much movement happening in the crease, so they're trying to hit a six and they're trying to get the game going," he said. "I think a lot of them play T20 cricket around the world, which is great, it's great for their pockets and it's great for them to learn. But, maybe, spending some time in four-day games might help, because one-day cricket is essentially a shortened version of a Test match. It's got its moments where T20 is applied. But patience is one of the biggest things that Afghanistan players need to learn, and once they get that down, honestly, in the next decade, they could win ICC tournaments, for sure," he noted. Former Indian batter Wasim Jaffer also lauded Afghanistan's progress on the global stage but pointed out key areas that need improvement. He noted their struggles to start tournaments strongly and highlighted their fragile batting lineup as a concern going forward. While Ibrahim Zadran's outstanding 177 powered Afghanistan to a famous win against England, the inconsistency of their top order remained evident. Sediqullah Atal impressed with 85 against Australia but failed to convert it into a more substantial score. More concerning was the form of star batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who managed just 16 runs across three games, leaving the top order unable to set a strong foundation collectively. "Afghanistan are on the rise," Jaffer said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo. "And you've got to applaud them because they've played semi-finals [at the 2024 T20 World Cup], they've beaten good teams and, when they beat anybody it's not an upset anymore. So, you can expect Afghanistan to put on a show," he added. "They will be disappointed [with] the way they started the first game. In such a short tournament, it's important to start really well because you don't get too many chances. One loss and you could be out of the tournament, which happened here," he noted. "Their batting needs to improve as well. We say that they are not a big chasing team. Their [Nos.] 3, 4, 5, even though Atal played well today, Rahmat Shah needs to be more consistent. He got a 90 in the first game, [Hashmatullah] Shahidi got stuck today, Gurbaz is their main player, he had a very off tournament. That's where I think they lacked this time," he said. (ANI)
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