Afghanistan batters were found wanting against the Bangladesh spinners in their World Cup 2023 opener in Dharamsala last Saturday (October 10).

Afghanistan were bowled out for a paltry 156 with Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan claiming three wickets each for Bangladesh.  

However, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi dismissed the talks of spin struggles on the eve of their second World Cup match against India, who have quality spinners like Kuldeep Yadav, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in their ranks.

Shahidi claimed that Afghanistan batters play better spinners in the nets than what India have got.

“We play better spinners in the net sessions. Like if you see Rashid, Nabi, Noor and Mujeeb, we play them every day. So, I think our team is far better in playing spin bowling.

“So that game you know we struggled but you can’t say that you are not good enough on one game. So that game is gone now and we know we can play spinners better and we will try to come back in next game in every department,” said Shahidi in the pre-match presser in Delhi on Tuesday (October 10).

Shahidi urged his batters to lift their game, citing that Afghanistan can’t go deep in the tournament relying solely on the spinners.

“Yes, I made a statement at the beginning that we will play good cricket as a batting side. We have a good spin bowling attack, but only one department can’t win you games.

“You have to score runs for that, to win the game. Also in Bangladesh game, I know we didn’t do well batting, but we still believe, I still believe and as a team we have that belief that we can come back in the next game and throughout the tournament,” the captain stated.

Afghanistan’s ace spinner Rashid Khan failed to take a wicket during their six-wicket defeat against Bangladesh as opposition batters chose to play safe against him. However, Shahidi isn’t too concerned about it.

“See, Rashid is the best bowler in ODI and T20s, so whatever opposition is doing, we don’t care about that, like how they play, they want to play Rashid, but for us the important thing is how he has planned against the opposition. So that matters for us.

“We are playing ODIs over the last six months so he knows how to bowl and he knows how to bowl to every team. He has the quality and whenever it’s his day he can do anything against the opposition, so we are expecting and we are hopeful that he delivers in tomorrow’s game.”

Ahead of the India-Afghanistan fixture, the rivalry between Naveen-ul-Haq and Virat Kohli has become the talk of the town all over again. The duo was involved in a heated altercation during the IPL 2023 season.

When asked about that incident, Shahidi replied: “See, as you mentioned before also, like India is our home, it was our home, we played here and the people of India give a lot of love to Afghanistan people.”

“And what happened in the ground, that aggression comes to every player, it’s not about India and Afghanistan. So, it can come to everyone. So, this happened and still like if you see a lot of our players, we have idols from Indian team like Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.”

(With PTI Inputs)