Given their ranking in ICC’s ODI Rankings, Afghanistan are the true underdogs of this World Cup, but then, who doesn't love an underdog? Many Afghan cricketers learned the game in refugee camps in Pakistan when their families had to immigrate due to Soviet invasion in the 1980s and their progress to qualify for the 10-team ICC tournament is truly remarkable. In recent times, Afghanistan’s World Cup preparations have been far from ideal as the Afghan cricket board decided to replace the national team captain, Asghar Afghan. Afghan had been the captain for all three formats for almost four years. He was replaced by 28-year-old all-rounder Gulbadin Naib who has been in and out the side since he made his debut 10 years ago but given the support he has garnered from his teammates, he could well lead his side to some big achievements in the tournament.

By Ghazanfar Khan (26th May, 2019)

Strengths:

Imbibed with the well cliched Afghan spirit which means that the ‘never give up’ and ‘fight till the last ball’ spirit is ever-present in the Afghanistan side, Gulbadin Naib’s men are sure to provide many memorable performances by the time they have played all their games. Afghanistan has been playing a brand of cricket which is very attractive to watch. They are aggressive, fearless and have beaten teams like Bangladesh, West Indies, Sri Lanka and secured a tie against India. They are well served in the spin department with the world-class talent of Rashid Khan and their top-order has a look of menace about them which their opponents will be wary of.


Weaknesses:

Courage to play the big shots is a great quality but on tricky surfaces, this could also lead to downfall and this is something the Afghan batsmen will need to worry about and is also something opposition bowlers would have noted. Apart from that, Afghanistan's biggest weakness is their fielding as was witnessed in the warmup game against Pakistan. They do not seem to work very hard on fielding which is not a surprise as this seems to be a subcontinental anomaly. The ICC World Cup 2019 will not be that easy as each team will be up against the best cricket teams of the world and so to maintain fitness in a long competition and keep the same intensity throughout will be a tough ask for a team like Afghanistan.


Players to watch

Afghanistan's opening pair is full of fire. On one side, they have the explosive Mohammad Shahzad who thinks having a Virat Kohli like diet is of no use to him as he can still hit big sixes. And on the other end, they have a master-blaster of their own, the next big thing, the 21-year-old Hazratullah Zazai. In February 2019, Zazai scored the highest individual score by an Afghan batsman in a Twenty20 International, with an unbeaten 162 runs off 62 balls against Ireland. Zazai has the capability to destroy bowling attacks. He is one player to look out for as he can change a game and is a crowd pleaser. He also has the ability to destroy bowler’s confidence as an exasperated Shaheen Shah Afridi found to his discomfort.

Afghanistan also arguably have the best spinners in the competition. They rely heavily on the trio of Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Muhammad Nabi. Rashid Khan is a well-known entity in world cricket. He is the top-ranked bowler in the Twenty20 format and third in the list of bowlers for ODIs. With the dry wickets in England spinners will have a big role to play and the Afghan’s could well have a huge say in the proceedings.


Prediction

Afghanistan has the ingredients to upset a few teams in the World Cup. They are unlikely to make it to the semi-finals since the competition is so tough, however they will most certainly be spoiling the campaigns of a few teams.


Full Squad:

Gulbadin Naib (C)
Mohammad Shahzad (wk)
Noor Ali Zadran
Hazratullah Zazai
Rahmat Shah
Asghar Afghan
Hashmatullah Shahidi
Najibullah Zadran
Samiullah Shinwari
Mohammad Nabi 
Rashid Khan
Dawlat Zadran 
Aftab Alam
Hamid Hassan
Mujeeb ur Rahman

Discuss!