There was a distinct, conscious, pause when Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott said ‘we’re not underdogs’ during his pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
This was Trott when he was asked about how challenging it would be for his team when they run into India in their opening Super Eight clash at the Kensington Oval on Thursday.
“… we’re fully prepared and ready for the battle,” he continued. “We have plenty of players in the team who are prepared to take on the challenge and put their hands up. See, when you have so many players who have a lot of exposure in the shortest format, no team is safe. India is a fine team, maybe even the best in the competition, but they will get a fight tomorrow.”
A reason for Trott’s confidence could well be their impressive roster of spinners with the likes of Rashid Khan leading the way. “When you have spinners with experience handling the high-pressure situations at the IPL (Indian Premier League), you tend to expect them to deliver when the stakes are raised. But we’re not only about bowlers anymore, we have some fine batters in the mix.
“Take (Rahmanullah) Gurbaz for example, he is in fine form, he’s ready to go and he’s willing to take over games, he also has the skills to do that.”
Another factor that Trott spoke of as a great leveller was the lack of dew. Since most of the games in this T20 World Cup are scheduled in the morning, dew doesn’t play a part, typically giving the team chasing an improved chance of winning the game.
“The day game will help the spinners and the toss won’t be as big a factor here as they are during evening games. Also, it becomes much easier to read pitches and how they will play when it’s a day game,” he said. “Also, lots of our players are familiar with the Indians and their tendencies so we will try and take all that experience and go at them.”
Published 19 June 2024, 18:10 IST