Afghanistan skipper Rashid aims to "keep things simple" ahead of Asia Cup opener

Dubai [UAE], September 9 (ANI): Ahead of his side's Asia Cup run opener against Hong Kong connected Tuesday, Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan said that the squad aims to support things simple, which contributed to their caller occurrence successful ICC events.

The Asia Cup T20I variation volition kickstart with a contention betwixt Afghanistan and Hong Kong successful Dubai connected Tuesday.

Afghanistan is heading into the tourney arsenic dark-horse contenders. Over the past 4 to 5 years, the squad has made a batch of strides successful white-ball cricket, finishing sixth successful the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 successful India with wins implicit defending champions England and erstwhile WC winners Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

In the T20 World Cup held successful the USA and the West Indies adjacent year, Afghans continued their giant-killing spree, beating New Zealand and Australia connected their mode to a historical semifinal finish.

Speaking successful Dubai up of their match, Rashid said, 'I deliberation for america it is to support things elemental arsenic we did successful the past mates of ICC events. I deliberation we did not enactment that other unit connected and said that we person to get to semis, we person to get to finals.'

Rashid said that a spot successful the semifinals oregon finals comes lone aft putting successful enactment and effort connected the field.

'We ever deliberation of putting 100 per cent effort connected the ground. It is the main thing. And to get immoderate accomplishment is great. We ne'er thought astir getting into the semis successful the World Cup. And we got it successful the West Indies. So that was huge. But earlier that, we worked hard. I deliberation we worked really, truly hard and enactment the effort we needed into the ground, and the effect came. So for us, it is the same. We support it simple. We enactment successful the hard enactment and let's spot what the effect is,' helium added.

Since past year's T20 World Cup, Afghanistan has featured successful 8 T20Is, winning 5 and losing three. While they secured the bilateral bid against Zimbabwe distant from location successful December past twelvemonth by 2-1, they mislaid their astir caller outing, the tri-nation bid last to Pakistan successful the UAE. They ended the tri-series with 3 wins and 2 losses.

Led by skipper Rashid Khan, with a young left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmed, a 19-year-old right-armer Allah Ghazanfar and a crafty, 40-year-old right-armer Mohammed Nabi, Afghanistan has an highly coagulated rotation attack. If the tracks successful Dubai crook retired to beryllium dilatory and connection turn, they could easy marque a speedy snack retired of their opposition. Despite his caller occasional struggles, Rashid has been successful coagulated signifier successful T20Is starring up to the Asia Cup, with 9 scalps successful 4 matches astatine an mean of 12.77, with an system complaint of 7.18.

Finishing arsenic finalists successful the tri-nation bid held successful Sharjah, Afghanistan has spent immoderate clip successful the UAE, portion not successful the Asia Cup venues of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. While the conditions whitethorn alteration astatine these 2 venues, the Rashid-led squad has enjoyed immoderate occurrence and the vantage of already having played successful the UAE. As suggested by the apical 5 successful the wicket-takers database being dominated by spinners, conditions successful Sharjah were highly spin-friendly, and this could beryllium the aforesaid successful Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Afghanistan's batting is not successful the champion signifier heading into the tournament, with Rahmanullah Gurbaz, their frontline batter, struggling for runs close now, having made conscionable 104 runs successful 8 appearances astatine an mean of 15.50 and a onslaught complaint of 104.20, conscionable aft finishing arsenic apical run-getter successful the T20 World Cup with 281 runs successful 8 matches, including 3 fifties.

Their batting mean of 20.96 is third-lowest down Sri Lanka (20.88) and Pakistan (19.84), portion viewed collectively, their onslaught complaint of 117.07 is second-lowest, with Oman lagging down with a onslaught complaint of 111.71. Amongst each the Test-playing nations, Afghanistan has the lowest onslaught complaint successful this year's Asia Cup. Also, their batters person conscionable six fifty-plus scores (no centuries) successful 66 innings, the lowest amongst each the participants heading into the tourney since the T20 World Cup 2024.

Afghanistan has played 8 T20Is heading into the Asia Cup, the slightest among each participants, with adjacent non-Test-playing countries similar Oman (15), Hong Kong (27), and UAE (29) having overmuch amended crippled clip and preparation. While the information successful T20 leagues worldwide is decidedly a positive and Afghans signifier a monolithic portion of these competitions, the strength and stakes are not arsenic precocious arsenic this coveted continental affair.

Afghanistan squad for Asia Cup: Rashid Khan (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Darwish Rasooli, Sediqullah Atal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Karim Janat, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mohammad Ishaq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Allah Ghazanfar, Noor Ahmad, Farid Malik, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi. (ANI)