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Ahead of his side's ICC Cricket World Cup, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said that there was a belief in the management for the team which has represented the country and that is why, it has managed to deliver some solid performances in the tournament.
Afghanistan will take on the Sri Lanka in their ICC Cricket World Cup match in Pune on Sunday. Afghanistan has pulled off two stunning upsets against defending champions England and Pakistan and has lost three games. They are at the seventh spot with four points. SL is in the fifth spot with two wins, three losses and four points. On persisting with the same talent pool over the year, Shahidi said in the pre-match press conference, "Yeah, we worked on this team for the last two years. Consistently, we were selecting the same team. We were struggling in some point of view, especially in death overs in the fast bowling department. But we tried our best to give that place to someone who can do it for us." "And Naveen (ul-Haq) was not with us, so he joined the World Cup. We took him for the World Cup squad and he is doing well right now. We have been working on this team for the last two years and we had a series against teams like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh consistently. We were playing a lot of domestic 50 overs cricket and we stuck with our plan; we stuck to the same team. When we were not doing good, we still had a belief in this team and these players. We give them a lot of chances," he added. Afghanistan has a spin-heavy attack. On the conditions in Pune, Shahidi said that conditions are different from Chennai and there is a lot of dew. "These conditions are totally different from Chennai one. Here we practiced at night time, there was a lot of dew and the wicket is a bit skiddy type so we assessed that and we knew and we will try to take advantage of the practice sessions that we had. So, we will move forward with that," said Shahidi. The skipper said that the match against Sri Lanka will be a good challenge for both teams since the Afghans had previously played against the Lankan Lions. "Yeah, it will be a tough challenge for both the teams. First of all, we played a lot of cricket together for the last one year and we know each other very well. And coming to the winning point that we also had a win our last game in India also. So, I will tell about our team, we have more confidence of that game. So, we will take that with us to the ground and we will try to go with a positive intent to the ground and play good cricket," said Shahidi. Shahidi said that he feels that Sri Lanka has a great team and bowling attack, but Afghanistan's strength is their spinner and they will put pressure on Sri Lanka. On his own batting form, Shahidi said that he struggled for runs in some matches but coach Jonathan Trott helped him with his batting. "I think I did well in the last game (against Pakistan) and also against India, but I was struggling in some of the games against Bangladesh and England. But I talked with the coach Jonathan [Trott] about my batting and he gave me a good idea. I can't share it here, but the one or two words that he told me that helped me a lot. And I will try to take that with me for the rest of the tournament also," said the skipper. In five matches, Shahidi has scored 168 runs at an average of 42.00, with one half-century and best score of 80. On whether the Lanka Premier League experience of players like Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mohammed Nabi will help the team, Shahidi said, "I think I mentioned before also we played a lot of cricket with Sri Lanka. Keep that LPL aside, we played a lot of ODIs like 9-10 matches. That is more than enough for each and every player. So only not the guys that you mentioned know about them. We all team know about them and their team know about us." Afghanistan squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Naveen ul Haq. Sri Lanka squad: Kusal Mendis (c), Kusal Perera, Pathum Nissanka, Dushmantha Chameera, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Maheesh Theekshana, Dunith Wellalage, Kasun Rajitha, Angelo Mathews, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushan Hemantha, Chamika Karunaratne. (ANI)
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