Barbados: Afghanistan, a team on fire in this World Cup, will be drawing from its immense T20 experience and the fertile IPL outings of most of the players in the squad to take on India in their first Super 8 match of this tournament today. And the team coach Jonathan Trott is loving this.
“I take it as a compliment that can't be taken lightly. But it is earned as well. We've got a lot of players playing a lot of T20 cricket around the world and now it's about putting that together as a side,” he said at his pre-match Press conference at Kensington Oval on Wednesday.
Trott is looking at individual cameos coming together as a team. “In the past, we've had some good individual players, but we need all those players playing together as a side. like in some group-stage matches. It’s exciting going into tomorrow's game and you're here at a great venue like Barbados, that only sets up well against a side like India. That's a bonus,” he added.
Trott believes that Afghanistan is yet to play its best game and hopes that will be tomorrow against India. “We've still got our best game to come in us. We put everything together and hopefully that's tomorrow,” he said.
Afghanistan who slayed New Zealand and threw them out of the tournament, had a torrid loss against the West Indies with Nicholas Pooran playing like God against them. “We came up against a very good side on their day against Pooran who played a great knock. We've learned that if a player gets going how we can adapt and do better against the sides in the Super 8. We're going to put that right starting tomorrow,” he said.
Afghanistan is one of the many teams who have played all their games in this tournament in the night and this will be their first day game, which is rather alien for this format. “Day games actually suit us better. India is a very, very good side in the day. As favourites has added pressure for India and we can come in as underdogs, but fully prepared underdogs,” Trott said.
Also, Trott said that the pitch reading in day games is a lot easier than in the evenings, depending on the dew. “The dew factor in the night games makes you second guess yourself a little bit. We certainly had that in the 50-over World Cup in India, and that's always tricky. A day game makes it a lot clearer and a lot easier, certainly for us as well,” he added.
Trott felt that in T20 cricket, openers and No 3 are key positions. “When you have a player like Gurbaz who can take hold of games, any team would be reliant on him. So yes, he's one of our players. But there's 10 other people who are in good form and ready to go. He's one of the leading run scorers, if not the leading run-scorer,” he said.
His spinners, like Rashid who slayed the New Zealand team along with Farooqui, as a strength. “Yet one of our seamers is a leading wicket-taker in the tournament. So, I think we've seen certainly over the last couple of years a more rounded side with regards to the ball and on condition. So, if it swings and seams, we can take wickets, if it spins hopefully, we can take wickets as well,” he concluded.
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