NEW DELHI: Afghanistan head coach
Jonathan Trott
believes his team is better suited for day games and is looking forward to taking on India in their Super 8 fixture in Bridgetown on Thursday.
Afghanistan enter the Super 8s with high confidence after winning three of their four league games, including one against New Zealand. Their only loss in the league stage was against West Indies earlier this week.
"Day games actually suit us better.
So, quite excited to play India in a day game. Obviously, they are one of the favourites and obviously that has added pressure for India," PTI quoted former England Test batter as saying.
He doesn't feel that Afghanistan can be dubbed as underdogs anymore.
"........and hopefully, we can come in obviously perceived as underdogs but in my mind very much not underdogs and fully prepared and ready for the battle that confronts us tomorrow which I'm very excited about,” Trott said on Wednesday.
Afghanistan narrowly missed a semis berth in the ODI World Cup in India last year but are considered a stronger force in the T20 format. Trott believes this reputation is a compliment to his team’s progress and performance.
“It's a compliment, but also earned as well. We've had, as you see in he IPL, 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 I think in the past we've had some good individual players, but we need all those players playing together as a side," Trott said.
Traditionally, Afghanistan have relied on spin bowling, but in this tournament, left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi has emerged as the standout performer and is currently the top wicket-taker.
"When you've got the spinners with the experience of T20 cricket, like we have, I think you would obviously say that's one of our strengths, but 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. So, if it swings and seams, we can take wickets, if it spins hopefully, we can take wickets as well."
India and Afghanistan had a thrilling double Super Over in Bengaluru earlier this year. Reflecting on the match, Trott remarked on how it highlighted the narrowing gap in abilities between teams.
India and Afghanistan had played a thrilling double Super Over in Bengaluru earlier this year. Reminded of that game India narrowly won, Trott added: “What I take away from the match is we should have won it, in that super over. But also, what I take away, it shows how the gap is closing with regards to our side, the ability that our players have to be able to chase as well in T20 cricket.
“That was a fantastic chase in Bangalore and unfortunately, we didn't win. To have a second Super over, I'm not sure that's ever happened before.”
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