With this T20 WC, Afghanistan will be making their fifth appearance in an ICC event.
Star Afghan leggie Rashid Khan recently talked about how his team has achieved a lot in the last 10 years and further added that he is confident of winning the T20 World Cup 2021 for his country in the near future.
“We have achieved a lot over the last 10 years as a team. Where we came from, where we had no facilities, we came from that stage and we've played lots of World Cups. It's a dream of every country to be called a Test team and we've got that as well, we've played Test games. We have achieved a lot,” Rashid Khan told ICC.
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The leggie believes his team can become World Champions as in the 2016-edition of the tournament, Khan was the second leading wicket-taker with 11 wickets to his name.
Also, Afghanistan was the only team to beat the ultimate winners West Indies in their final Group 1 match.
“We have that target in the future that one day we have the ability to win the World Cup, especially the T20 World Cup.
That's the focus of everyone back home. That's the dream of everyone, that's the target of every player and we are capable of achieving that target. We have that belief in our skills and ourselves, and I'm pretty sure we're going to achieve that target in the future,” the leg-spinner said.
23-year-old Khan is a household name in India owing to his exploits for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), then talked about his feelings after being named ICC Men's T20I Player of the Decade.
“Unbelievable. I never had that in my mind to be called ICC T20I Player of the Decade. To be called the Player of the Decade was more than special for me. It was a dream,” he said.
“To take Afghanistan cricket to the next level. As soon as we achieve that level, especially for the youngsters back home, it gives them lots of hopes, lots of future plans and gives them the kind of energy to come up and do the same for the cricket of Afghanistan. That will be the target to win the World Cup for the country,” the ace leg-spinner Rashid Khan said.
Khan then named uncapped spinner Noor Ahmed the player to watch out for in the future as he said, “He is someone who can deliver well in the future for Afghanistan.”
Afghanistan then further talked about the other two future prospects of Afghanistan cricket in his teammates Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Hazratullah Zazai.
“These two are really destructive batsmen. If they look after themselves well, then they have that kind of self-belief that they can play at any stage and they can play some massive, massive innings,” Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan concluded.
As far as the T20 World Cup 2021 is concerned, Afghanistan is in Group 2 of the Super 12 stage alongside India, Pakistan, New Zealand, and two yet-to-be-known qualifying teams, and will begin their campaign on October 26 in Sharjah against the top-ranked team from Group B in Round 1.
(With IANS Inputs)