Rashid Khan banks on Afghanistan chasing 200-run target in T20 World Cup

Guyana [West Indies], June 3 (ANI): Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan backed the batting strength of his team and believes that they have a set-up that has the potential to chase down a 200-run target.

Afghanistan have had their batting woes which reflected during their T20I series against Ireland. They managed to win the T20I series by 2-1 but managed to string up scores of 111, 142/8 and 155/7.

They managed to go past the 150-run mark once in three matches. Ahead of their T20 World Cup opening game against Uganda at the Providence Stadium, Rashid banked on the potential of their batting set-up.

“In the past, we were struggling a little bit in the batting area. Earlier, our bowlers would do a lot more and help us win the games. Later, we got those young batters, especially from the Under-19 cricket, and the way they came up to the national side, and the way they have worked hard, they got the opportunity to play for Afghanistan at a very young age and then start exploring all around the world, playing leagues where they got better and better,” Rashid said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.

Rashid feels that the mindset that the players opt to go out with will determine whether they can chase a target of 200. The 25-year-old also believes that overall, the team has improved their skills and has gone better over time.

“I think we have that kind of batting line-up where we can say it’s fine if there is a target of 200 as well on a wicket. We have that kind of ability and skills and talent that we can express on the ground and chase that. T20 cricket is all about the mindset. As long as you have the right mindset, and you have the belief that we can do, anything is possible. The other thing is the actual cricket. I think we have played enough cricket in the past couple of years where our skills have got better and better. And we have been challenging the opposition,” he added.

Some sections of fans and cricket experts have backed Afghanistan to make the final four of the ongoing edition of the World Cup.

Rashid addressed the ongoing speculations around Afghanistan making it into the semis and feels it is a very positive sign for them.

“Yeah, a few people have mentioned Afghanistan is going to be there for semis. We take that as a very positive sign. Earlier, it used to be hard for us to even qualify. And now to be nominated to be there in the top four, I think it’s a big thing for us,” Rashid said.

“But we don’t look at those things a lot. It’s all about how we’re going to be there on the ground, delivering. We were very nearly in the last [ODI] World Cup semis as well. We were just one game away from being in the semis and that’s where I feel the belief started that nothing is impossible for us as a team. So yeah, we are really excited about this World Cup but as I said before we take one game at a time and then see how it goes,” he added.

Afghanistan Squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Ishaq, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan (c), Nangyal Kharoti, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad Malik.