Afghanistan’s leg-spinner Rashid Khan will be captaining the side for the first time in a men’s T20 World Cup through the upcoming edition of the tournament and he’s of the opinion that once the belief of beating top sides comes, then they can defeat anyone.

Afghanistan are placed alongside co-hosts West Indies, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Uganda Group C of the Men’s T20 World Cup. Afghanistan have never entered the knockouts of the T20 World Cup, where they have been present since 2010. At the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, Afghanistan scripted stunning wins over England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Netherlands.

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“The confidence is there because we have already beaten West Indies a few times in T20s. We beat them in ODIs as well. And, more importantly, there are seven to eight guys playing in the IPL, which is the best preparation ahead of the World Cup.”

“And the conditions in the World Cup may be good for the spinners – at least, that is my expectation. Even if it is flat wickets, the kind of bowling unit we have, we don’t rely much on the wicket. We have a fair few mystery spinners who make it harder for the batter to score freely.”

“But the most important thing is: how we are going there mentally. Do we have that kind of belief where we can beat New Zealand? Do we have that kind of belief where we can beat West Indies? As soon as that belief comes, you can beat any side. That’s the kind of belief we had in the ODI World Cup last year in India. Since we beat England, we said we can beat any side,” said Rashid to ESPNCricinfo.

He also touched upon the previous experience of Afghanistan players featuring in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL). “I have also bowled a lot in the CPL. (Mohammad) Nabi, Mujeeb (Ur Rahman) and Noor (Ahmad), too, have bowled on the wickets in the Caribbean and we have all found enough spin and are well-versed with the conditions. So we have that advantage.”

Rashid further thinks Afghanistan need to exhibit calmness during its matches in the T20 World Cup. “If we can exercise a bit of calmness, that’s something that can have a massive impact on the game. If we [over]think that we are playing against New Zealand, West Indies… that’s going to affect us. But if you instead think that you are just playing a normal game against anybody, that’s where we can deliver the best individually and for the team.”

“It is about ensuring we enjoy, we express our talent and the skills we have. We need to make sure we stick to our strong points, that’s how we can be most successful. And to not think about the opposition much, whoever they are. As long as we think about ourselves, what we can do best for the team, that’s going to be the challenge for us.”

“We have to beat the teams with our own skills. We can’t beat teams the way India do, how Australia do. We have our own way, our own style of playing the game. As long as we play our own style of the game, I think we can beat any side,” he concluded.