Follow UsLess than 36 hours after beating Australia in a historic fashion, Afghanistan will be back on the field for the last Super 8 encounter of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup when they lock horns with Bangladesh at the Arnos Vale Ground, Kingstown, St Vincent.
If Australia manage to beat India on June 24 morning in St Lucia, Afghanistan will know the exact equation for them to get the better of Bangladesh. However, if India beat Australia, it will be rather easy for them as a simple win can see them through. Jonathan Trott, a man who believes in treating two imposters of the game alike, with the focus still on qualifying for the semi-final of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024.
“Yeah, it's a nice feeling to have that fact that we're playing the last game,” Trott said in the pre-match press conference ahead of their clash against Bangladesh. “You will know exactly what the scenario is and what's needed to win. That's always a nice feeling. But I think with cricket, many things are thrown and so many results can go against or for you. So, we've just got to focus on our match against Bangladesh and when all the other matches are played, we'll know what we need to do and the decisions we need to make.”
Afghanistan players were ecstatic after the win which made millions of fans come to the streets and celebrate. In the last Cricket World Cup in India, Afghanistan ran Australia close and almost had a victory before a freakish innings from Glenn Maxwell turned the table upside down.
There was also the history of Cricket Australia cutting down bilateral ties with Afghanistan over the Taliban not allowing women to play cricket in their country - and that triggered many players to criticize the six-time ODI World Cup and one-time T20 World Champions. However, Trott refrained from speaking more on that.
“No, I think everybody has days where they have an off day. I don't necessarily want to comment too much on other teams and the way that they go about things. I thought the way that we fielded was really good in our match against Australia, and hopefully, that can continue in our game against Bangladesh. We're going to need those standards and certainly on a venue like this with the type of pitch, games are going to be close and that's sometimes determined by the fielding.”
However, the former England batter added that Afghanistan need to pull up their socks in order to do well against Bangladesh and, possibly, beyond. “The skill was the partnership that we had, the platform that we had, and then that enabled us to accelerate a little bit. I still don't think we batted all that well towards the end of the innings. We left a lot of runs out there, and that's something we need to work on and get better at.
“Certainly, when you have that type of platform, you need to be able to capitalize with the amount of wickets in hand that we had. So, looking forward to the Bangladesh game, that's going to be key and how we play that. So, that's always a nice thing, having played at the venue and on the same pitch that we're playing on against Bangladesh and having a little bit of knowledge,” the 43-year-old added.
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