Jonathan Trott, the former England batter, is aware of the excitement and rivalry that a Pakistan-Afghanistan cricket contest brings. However, the Afghanistan head coach wants to tone it down to the practicality of the job at hand.
In a span of a few minutes, he switches from, “It’s a rivalry that excites them. I think it’s a rivalry that sometimes in the past has been very passionate.”
To: “Every game is a must-win game. This is a World Cup and every game is important. So, I don’t see the other matches just as more important as this.”
Afghanistan may have never beaten Pakistan in the seven ODIs the two teams have played against each other, but they have stretched them close a few times – whether it’s in the last tournament or the last World Cup, and given the spin threat they pose, Chennai would be an ideal venue to believe they can end that winless run.
“We’ve seen Asia Cup clashes and matches that have been very exciting. No closer than the T20 Asia Cup last year where it went down with Pakistan won by one wicket. So, we’ve had very close games as well. So, they’ve been very good, very interesting and exciting games. Hopefully, tomorrow isn’t very exciting and we win by a lot. But I’m sure we’ll see an exciting game tomorrow. It’s just the nature of the rivalry, I should say. And both teams, I think, respect each other, but are very desperate to win.”
But Trott has sounded a warning bell, stating that the onus of winning can’t lie solely on the spinners, who had played a pivotal role when they beat England last week. Their batters have especially underperformed.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Azmatullah Omarzai and Hasmatullah Shahidi have scored a fifty each, but none of them have imposed themselves in the competition as yet. Rahmanullah, who is their high run-getter in the tournament so far, has scored 159 runs in 4 innings at an average of 39.75 and a strike rate of less than run-a-ball. The pacers have been marginally better, but the trio of Naveen ul Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqui and Omarzai have combined to pick only nine wickets across four games, and conceded at over run-a-ball.
“The thing is – with spinners, there are only two or three of them playing a game. And it’s the other eight as well that have to play the game so that’s important. So, it’s everybody’s job it’s not just the spinners’ job to win games. There’s batsmen who’ve got to put runs on the board or batsmen who’ve got to chase down a total. So yes, the spinners are important and getting our selection is key for the fixture but it’s a team effort. There’s no reliance on just spinners. There’s seam bowlers as well who’ve got to bowl well and bowl well in whatever conditions we’re confronted with.”
Their fielding too has been left wanting – dropping seven catches in their previous match against New Zealand. But Trott is hoping his team will be able to put up a better performance against Pakistan.
“Dropped catches don’t help, especially when you win the toss and bowl first, you want to put the opposition under pressure. We had an opportunity to do that with New Zealand, and we had them, I think it was about 115 for four as well at one stage. You know, we let them get away. So, obviously the things you’d like to do differently, there are things you could do better, and we’ll be looking tomorrow to do that.”
With dew not expected to play a big role in Monday’s game, Trott believes toss is unlikely to be important even as he admitted that batting first has allowed the batters to play with much more freedom in the absence of the scoreboard pressure, as reflected in the performances against Bangladesh and England. He also added that it works with the team’s plan of putting the opposition under pressure early on – whether with the bat or the ball
“It’s about making sure whatever you do first, you put the opposition under pressure whatever you do first. So, if you’re bowling first, you make sure you take your catches and you bowl accurately and you restrict them to a total you can chase. Irrespective of the pitch or the dew factors that come in.
“So, we’ve got to play cricket well from the start. It’s nothing to do with batting or bowling first. We’ve got to be better at the start. We saw against England we were good at the start and we managed to get a victory. Against New Zealand, we weren’t that great and we put ourselves under pressure. So tomorrow, hopefully that turns around again.”
