Dying to kill
It is reported in the press that in Pakistan, 12 security personnel were killed last month when a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a check post in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi is of the opinion that the sudden and unexpected change in captaincy prior to an important tournament like the ICC Cricket World Cup led to a dismal performance on their part in the tournament scheduled in England and Wales.
Notably, just before the beginning of the world cup, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) had decided to remove Asghar Afghan from captaincy and made a relatively untested and inexperienced Gulbadin Naib the captain of the Afghanistan team.
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Although a lot was expected from Afghanistan in the World Cup especially because they had played quality cricket in the brief period leading up to the world cup, they failed to deliver on the World Cup stage as they failed to win a single game in the group stage and ended at the bottom of the points tally.
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“Before the World Cup we changed the old captain and that was the main thing why we couldn’t play well as a team. That (new) captain never captained in his life. That’s why we didn’t do that well in the World Cup, and even though we had good games against India, Pakistan and West Indies, we lost those matches,” Nabi said after Afghanistan registered a historic win against Bangladesh on Monday.
The all-rounder, who will not feature in Test cricket any more, believes that Rashid Khan as a captain across all formats will work for the team.
“It’s all about the team combination. Before the World Cup, the board members changed the old captain and the combination didn’t work in the World Cup,” Nabi said. “Here with Rashid Khan as captain, he has the ability to lead the team. Besides that, me and Asghar (Afghan) support him a lot.”
“But now it’s totally changed. We have given chances to our young players. There are many young players for T20s and in this Test, we debuted three young players.
This is the main thing we are focusing on and we have put up a young captain. He is the number one bowler in the world as well,” he added.
Afghanistan will be up against West Indies next in a three T20Is, three ODIs and one Test Match face off.
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