Featuring in their second ODI World Cup, Afghanistan have shown significant improvement. They batted out 50 overs against the tournament favourites England while chasing a mammoth 398, while gave India a run for their money during Saturday’s (June 22) thriller in Southampton.

As Afghanistan are gearing up to take on Bangladesh in their next clash, skipper Gulbadin Naib has jokingly issued a warning for the Tigers, saying: “Hum to dube hai sanam, tumko lekar dubenge (We have already drowned darling, but we will take you with us).”

However, he made it clear that they are not taking Bangladesh easily despite their narrow 11-run loss to two-time champions India.

“I think we cannot take it easy against Bangladesh. They’re a good side and they proved themselves in this stage,” Naib told reporters on the eve of the match.

“But one thing about my team is that it’s not an easy team. The first four or five games, we played very badly but we are improving day by day, and hopefully tomorrow will be our day. In the first three-four games, we struggled a lot. The surface and the wickets are totally different. We didn’t expect it,” he added.

Afghanistan will play Bangladesh, who have two wins from six matches, on the same slow track of The Rose Bowl Stadium on Monday.

“It’s a very good wicket for us. It’s like Asian conditions with the ball turning,” Naib said.

“Yesterday you saw it against India, who have probably the best batting attack. So if the wicket helps our spinners, it’s very difficult for any team, not only Bangladesh,” he concluded.

(With inputs from The Indian Express)