Tarouba, June 27
Despite missing a spot in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 final, Afghanistan produced an inspiring performance. Focusing on the positives of their campaign which saw Afghanistan qualifying for the knockout stage of the competition, head coach Jonathan Trott talked of learnings from the tournament.
Afghanistan's ICC T20 World Cup odyssey got over after a disappointing loss to South Africa in the first semi-final.
But the Asian team has relished the opportunities to prove themselves on a world scale.
In the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, Afghanistan defeated top-ranked teams including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and England, to finish sixth in the league standings.
In the World Cup 2024, they stepped it up a level by reaching their first World Cup semi-final, upsetting cricketing behemoths such as New Zealand and Australia.
"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," he added.
Throughout the tournament, the Afghans batted exceptionally well, with openers Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz leading the way.
In their inaugural match against Uganda, the duo scored the second-highest first-wicket partnership in the T20 World Cup, totaling 154 runs. With two more 100-plus run partnerships against New Zealand (103 runs) and Australia (118 runs), they are only the second opening pair in the T20 World Cup to do so, after Pakistan's Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan.
Their four 50-plus partnerships in this edition of the event are also the most for a pair in a single Men's T20 World Cup. However, the middle order has failed to match the openers' performance.
Trott believes Afghanistan's reliance on its openers was a source of concern, which the team needed to address by bringing in more strong top and middle-order hitters.
"South Africa bowled pretty well and they knew how to bowl 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," he added.
"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," Trott said.
While the Afghans have long been recognised for their spinners, the fast bowlers stood out throughout this season. Fazalhaq Farooqi (17 wickets) and Naveen-ul-Haq (13 wickets) took full advantage of the favourable circumstances, particularly during night matches.
West Indies legend Dwayne Bravo served as the team's bowling guru during the competition and was seen heavily involved in the games.
"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," the Afghanistan coach said.
"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," he added.