Going into today’s third and final ODI in Chattogram, Bangladesh and Afghanistan appear to be on completely opposite ends of the spectrum. Afghanistan is living in the now with confidence, whereas Bangladesh seems to be waiting for the future (as is customary in Bangladeshi cricket when things don’t go their way).
The Tigers were unable to get in a practice yesterday owing to rain in the morning, but the visitors were able to because they have already won the series.
The Bangladesh squad did not show up, and Nic Pothas implied in his news conference that the reason was because they wanted to learn from the experience. It was unclear if any action had been taken to specifically address the three Afghan spinners.
The question was posed to Pothas as to whether or not he had found it challenging to read the Afghan spinners out of hand. I don’t think it’s really a fair question to ask if we had any difficulties. The issue is that the world has a hard time choosing them,” he remarked.
Despite Afghanistan’s tenth place in the ODI rankings, Pothas claimed that all teams have had trouble playing them. Prior to this series, Afghanistan had only won ODI series against the likes of Scotland, the Netherlands, Zimbabwe, and Ireland.
Everyone has trouble choosing them, and the rankings will tell you where they are in the world. The big question, he thought, was how we were going to use this challenge to improve ourselves.
It was well known that there is a significant learning curve associated with playing cricket at the international level. The World Cup is an opportunity for the Tigers to put their best foot forward, thus Pothas believed the team’s batters needed more practice facing quality spin before the tournament began.
You can draw the most parallels between international cricket and county and state levels. There is still a significant gap. When you play cricket on a global stage, the stakes are much higher. The best bowlers in the world will discover ways to beat you. ‘These things take time,’ he said, implying that effort would be required.
Afghanistan’s spin attack has been huge, but the success of their pacers has given the team renewed optimism heading into the World Cup. Hamid Hassan, the team’s bowling coach, boasted that his team was better prepared than Bangladesh.
Bangladesh have not been able to put the pressure back on Afghanistan in any of the two ODIs.
We were a step ahead of Bangladesh in terms of playing positive cricket. Because of this, Bangladesh may have had trouble getting an early start on our bowlers and batters. Perhaps that was the most crucial thing. Beating Bangladesh on their own turf is no simple feat, but we put in the necessary five or six hours of preparation time to ensure victory. And the most crucial of all, trusting in one’s own team and oneself. That’s the most crucial factor in anyone’s life. He was of the opinion that if you have faith in yourself, no one can stop you.
Afghanistan’s preparations for the World Cup received a major boost from the country’s successful execution of its plans. Given the team’s recent success, we’re setting higher expectations for this match. Hassan acknowledged that Afghanistan has gained international attention.