Afghanistan’s all-rounder Rashid Khan is confident that his team will make it to the T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final this time after coming so close in the ODI World Cup 2023.
Afghanistan is one of the best T20 sides in the world due to their world-class spin bowling attack and improved batting lineup. The presence of the likes of Rashid, Noor Ahmed, Mujeeb ur Rehman and others makes them a dominant side with the ball.
Many have predicted that Afghanistan may go all the way to the World Cup last four and Rashid believes that such predictions mean that they are doing something right.
“They have mentioned Afghanistan is going to be there for semis,” Rashid said as quoted by the ICC. “We take that as a very positive sign. Before, it used to be [that] Afghanistan even contribution was hard for us to get qualified.
“And now to be [in the] nomination, to be there in the top four, I think it's big for us.”
In the ODI World Cup 2023, Afghanistan stunned the world with their wins over England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and they were on the verge of qualifying for the tournament’s semi-final but couldn’t go over the line.
However, Rashid is not looking at the past and wants his entire team to focus on one match at a time.
“But for us, we don't look to those things a lot. It's all about how we're going to be there in the ground, delivering. We were very near in the last World Cup as well to be in the semis,” he added.
“We were just one game away from being in the semis and that's where I feel like the belief started that nothing is impossible and for us as a team. So yeah, looking forward we are really excited about this World Cup. We take one game at a time and then see how it goes.”
Afghanistan will begin their World Cup campaign against Uganda in Guyana in yet another Group C match tomorrow.
Afghanistan’s squad for T20 World Cup
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Ishaq, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan (c), Nangyal Kharoti, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Fareed Ahmad Malik
Reserves: Sediq Atal, Hazratullah Zazai and Saleem Safi.
- Rashid Khan
