As Afghanistan ended their T20 World Cup campaign with a win over Canada, bringing an end to Jonathan Trott’s era as head coach, they will head home with more questions than they came to India with. For a team that has been able to churn out mystery spinners after mystery spinners, this was a tournament where they would feel their batsmen could have stepped up a level in familiar conditions.
On Thursday, with their opener Ibrahim Zardan anchoring the innings with an unbeaten 95 off 56 deliveries, Afghanistan posted 200/4. It was the 10th occasion of them posting a total of 200 or above, but one deep look at those instances will tell you a pattern that Afghanistan would try to course correct on their way forward. Out of those 10 scores, only two have come against top-ranked teams — India and Sri Lanka. The others have come against Associates, Zimbabwe and Ireland, who are no match to them in T20Is.
While the Afghans have found a formula, where a total of 160-180 is usually seen as manageable, when their spinners can work around or restrict opponents to, it is the more batting-friendly conditions that have posed problems. The soul-crushing defeat to South Africa in two Super Overs is a case in point where the batsmen failed to finish the game thrice in a game. For a team that has plenty of globetrotters, the batsmen still remain second-class citizens in franchise cricket is a sign of the lack of progression in the batting front.
Firstly, there needs to be a substantive change in terms of their intent. On a placid pitch, where Canada’s attack showed admirable discipline, Zardan and Gurbaz got the head start, but at the same time, they played to their limitations of the target they had in mind. It meant they seldom tried to force the issue with the bat. Zardan waited till the fourth over to break the shackles, and having hit two boundaries in the over, instead of keeping the foot on the pedal, slowed down, and when Gurbaz departed after making 30 off 20 in the sixth over, Zardan had 13 off 13. In the middle-overs, he finally shifted gears, bringing fifty off 33 deliveries — he was 31 off at one point – but it was an innings which could have brought more if the intent started early. As Zardan held his end, the rest played around him with Sediqullah Atal’s 44 off 32 helping them with a strong finish and a first score of 200 in the T20 World Cup.
With an army of spinners waiting in the fringes, whether veteran Mohammad Nabi continues in Afghanistan colours is a question only time will tell. But if this was his last outing, the off-spinner ensured he would leave an imprint, ending with figures of 4-0-7-4. Having been an integral member of the team for many years, Nabi has been the face of this team, which started as a rank outsiders. Despite being a finger spinner who relies mostly on the off-breaks, he caused all sorts of problems with his variations in pace. As the likes of Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid relied on quick, flat leg-breaks, Nabi was happy slowing it down and giving it air, inviting the inexperienced Canada batsmen to go after him. All of his four wickets came when batsmen tried to launch it into the stands, and the resultant top-edge invariably found the fielders.
Brief Scores: Afghanistan 200/4 in 20 overs (Ibrahim Zadran 95 not out; Jaskaran Singh 3/52) beat Canada 118/8 in 20 overs (Harsh Thaker 30; Mohammad Nabi 4/7) by 82 runs.
