Follow UsAfghanistan pulled off a historic victory against England in Lahore on February 27 (Wednesday). This was their first-ever win in the ICC Champions Trophy, and they also remain in contention for a place in the semi-final. However head coach Jonathan Trott is not looking too far ahead and wants his team to enjoy the victory. At the same time, he also wants them to turn their attention to Australia immediately after that.
"Afghan fans - enjoy tonight. But - to the players, I'm going to make sure they enjoy tonight and wake up tomorrow ready for Australia. As soon as they wake up tomorrow, the focus is on Australia. That's how the players are going to be, and that's what I'll tell the fans," Trott said at the post-match press conference.
Trott also lauded Afghanistan's resilience to reach 325 after being reduced to 39/3 in the first powerplay. Ibrahim Zadran's 177 off 146 played a pivotal role in getting them there, but Trott also acknowledged the cameos played by Azmatullah Omarzai (41 off 31) and Mohammad Nabi (40 off 24).
"I think to be able to get to 325 after being, I think, 39/3 after the powerplay - it just showed the quality of Ibrahim as a player," Trott said.
"But also, if a batter got in, it's quite hard to stop them on these wickets here. And I think he was helped by the way that Azmat came in and the way that he played took the pressure off him, the way that Nabi came in and played and took the pressure off him, Ibrahim could just play and accelerate it without even really knowing it. I think he played some fantastic cricket shots, certainly the straight six off Jofra Archer comes to mind, and some various other shots.
"And so, I'm really pleased for him. He's been out for a little bit of time and I hope - he's looked a little bit out of rhythm. But hopefully he's found it now. He's certainly found it, but hopefully, he can continue this form, which is a memorable knock for him and one that he'll remember for a long time, but hopefully, he can repeat it again on Friday."
Trott feels there's plenty of fight and resilience in the Afghanistan side and hoped that more players develop and come into the international setup to increase the talent pool further.
"I think obviously this fight but there's a resilience to them - to all of them. And I think if you add to some cricketing experience and cricketing match awareness with regards to batting in particular, with regards to how you pace the innings, we saw Ibrahim the way that he's done today, we've seen [Rahmanullah] Gurbaz do it in the past, and we've seen various players come in, that it's not always down to one person," the head coach said.
"We have Gulbadin [Naib] at eight at the moment, who can come in and change games. So that self-belief is important and it starts within, but it's also quite infectious and it spreads within the squad. So, performances today like Azmat and performances like Nabi and obviously Ibrahim, coming in and playing.
"It's not always just about one person. It's about the team, but it's watching the guys like Nabi and Rashid and the way that they go about their business It's only great for the younger players and that increases their or speeds up their development, and hopefully we can continue to bring the players through."
Afghanistan also beat Australia in the recent T20 World Cup and if they repeat that in on Friday in Lahore, they will make it to the semi-final. Trott asserted Australia will not take this Afghanistan side lightly, especially with semi-final qualification on the line as well.
"It's all on the line, isn't it, and I think we've played against - since I've been coach, we've played against Australia three times, and we've been in the game each of those games," Trott said.
"So, we should take a lot of confidence from that. And I think certainly what happened in the World Cup, T20 World Cup, and I say this to the players as well, that Afghanistan's never going to be taken lightly ever again.
"So, we've got to be prepared because I know Australia aren't going to take us lightly. Whereas in the past, perhaps people would have seen the fixture and thought it was a little bit easier than playing a historic Test Nation. But in this format, in these conditions, I don't see that. I see every game that we play is going to be competitive, and every game we go into, I expect to win."