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Follow UsBefore England took on India in Lucknow last Sunday, suddenly, words started floating around that the top seven teams from the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 would make it to the 2025 Champions Trophy, slated to be played in Pakistan. England coach Matthew Mott revealed that he had no idea, but Jos Buttler stated that he had known about it.
Since then, Cricket.com has reached out to multiple boards, and they have confirmed that the ICC had, in fact, informed them about the same after the ICC Cricket Committee ratified the decision taken at the Chief Executives Meeting in 2021. When Jonathan Trott was offered the same question, he sided with Mott’s answer, adding that he had no idea about it.
“I didn't know about it before the tournament,” Trott replied in the press conference ahead of Afghanistan’s match against the Netherlands in Lucknow.
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With three wins and three losses, Afghanistan are placed in the sixth position on the points table and have a slim chance of making it to the semi-finals. Spinners are going to play a key role in the match, but Netherlands’ Colin Ackermann has already put them under pressure by stating Afghanistan spinners don’t hold the same sway in the ODIs as they do in T20Is. However, Trott doesn’t agree with that assessment.
“I think it's about being consistent in those formats. I think our spinners are ranked quite highly in ODI cricket as well as well as T20, so I'm not quite sure what that sort of comment is, but I think they bowl well in all formats. I don't think it's a case of just talent, as your question suggests. I think it's a case of experience, it's a case of assessing the conditions like our spinners do, communicating that, what length as well that spinners should bowl, having that.
“So, it's not just about the format; it's about the moment and the occasion as well. A lot goes into the melting pot to make a good spinner, certainly in T20 cricket but also in ODI cricket, where generally spinners are going to bowl with only four fielders out, and that's a skill in itself to be able to do that as a finger spinner and as a wrist spinner to have the control as a wrist spinner but also the experience and the skill is just a normal finger spinner with no mystery,” the former England batter stated.
However, he further added that it is about adding more skills to their already-existing T20 abilities, which they have in abundance already.
“I think it's a case more of just being better all-around and thinking more about your all-around game. I think Afghanistan [players] naturally grows up playing a lot more T20 cricket format than any other format, so the skills for T20 are there. It's about adding to that sort of base of T20 skills.
“As you see, 50-over cricket is a long time, and you have to be able to, I think, ride the sort of ebbs and flows of a game. The thing that I'm really happy about from the last game is we lost a wicket in the first over, and you know Rahmat Shah was able to go into number three and soak up that pressure but still keep scoring at a good tempo. So that shows the ability to soak up pressure at times, what you have to do in 50 over cricket, but also then accelerate at certain times.
“So, wanting and trying to enable batters and give them the game and help them grow the game so they can have both facets of the game. Pressure, soaking it up, rotation of strike, and obviously accelerating and boundary hitting,” Trott added.
