New Delhi: Natural talent, well-honed skill sets, a tenacious fighting spirit, and plenty of hard work have contributed to the remarkable rise of Afghanistan cricket. But there’s another crucial factor— India’s guiding hand.
Over the years, India has supported Afghanistan cricket in several ways—from former Indian cricketers coaching the national team, to providing Afghanistan players Indian stadiums and facilities to train and play their ‘home’ matches.
The result of this is reflected in Afghanistan’s performance in the ongoing World Cup in India, especially their shock win over reigning champions England on October 15 in Delhi. Posting 284 runs, this was the team’s biggest victory ever in ODIs and indeed in the 50-over World Cup so far. Before this win, Afghanistan had beaten only minnows Scotland in the 2015 World Cup.
While there have been other surprising upsets in the 48-year history of the World Cup, but Afghanistan, ranked second-lowest, defeating the defending champions is truly unprecedented. This win sets the stage for Afghanistan to aim high for other cricket milestones.
Former India batsman Lalchand Rajput, who played test matches and ODIs between 1985 to 1987, was thrilled to bits as he watched Afghanistan silence Jos Buttler’s formidable team at the historical Ferozeshah Kotla grounds. The Afghanistan coach from 2016 to 2018, he is delighted with how far his former wards have come.
“It is one of the biggest upsets ever. I am really happy and overwhelmed by their victory. They have made history,” he told ThePrint.
Although Afghanistan faced a setback against New Zealand on October 18 in Chennai, the team still has five more matches to play and is a strong contender for additional surprising victories.
India has a lot to do with this.
Many Afghanistan players have become intimately familiar with Indian pitches, grounds, and overhead conditions. And some of the top Afghan cricketers have gained invaluable experience by playing in various Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises.
Ravaged by conflict, Afghanistan has not been able to host international matches, but India has been the next best thing to a home turf for almost eight years. Many Afghanistan ‘home’ internationals have been played in places like in Dehradun, Greater Noida, and Lucknow.
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The Indian hand
Lalchand Rajput (chief coach), Manoj Prabhakar (bowling coach), Ajay Jadeja (mentor for the ongoing World Cup), Umesh Patwal (batting coach) Monty Desai (batting coach) are the Indians who have been associated with Afghanistan over the years.
Sunday, Rajput cheered all the way from Harare, where he is currently based as the technical director of Cricket Zimbabwe, as he watched Afghanistan pull off its 69-run win over England.
That day, England’s batsmen failed to read and negotiate the Afghan spin trio Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Rashid Khan, and Mohammad Nabi on a relatively small ground in Delhi and succumbed to them in a heap. Afghanistan’s batsmen also came good and posted a competitive total of 284, batting first.
“Afghanistan have the best spinners of all the competing teams in the World Cup. I always thought that 270-280 was a good total [against England],” he told ThePrint.
Rajput attributed the win to Afghan players’ style of play.
“Afghan players play their cricket aggressively, fearlessly, and passionately. These are the strengths of their cricket. They never say no to hard work. When I was coach and if I would ask them to run for 20 or 30 minutes, they would say that they would run for 40 minutes. Such was their commitment to hard work,” the 61-year-old, also a former Indian team coach, said.
Rajput said that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the Indian government, and former Indian cricketers have made a significant contribution to Afghanistan cricket.
In 2015, the BCCI, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), and the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority signed an MoU making Greater Noida Afghanistan’s “home” where their players trained, practiced, and played their “home” international matches at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex.
Afghanistan have also played several of their “home” internationals in Dehradun and at Lucknow’s ultra-modern Ekana Stadium, one of the 10 venues of the ongoing World Cup. While in India, they have played several practice matches in some other cities, including Surat.
Some of the Afghanistan players who are in the World Cup squad were part of the group that was with Rajput.
“Present captain Hashmat Shahidi, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman Zadran, Naveen-ul-Haq, Najibullah Zadran, and Rahmat Shah etc. were with me when I was coach,” Rajput pointed out. “I handpicked Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, the Man of the Match against England, and Naveen-ul-Haq from the under-19 category, after realising that they had lots of talent.”
Some advice for Afghans
Former India all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar was in the hill resort of Nainital, when Afghanistan made history Sunday night. He was the bowling coach of the Afghanistan team in 2019, supplementing the efforts of chief coach Inzamam-ul-Haq of Pakistan.
While Prabhakar, 60, was pleased with the team’s performance, he also had some words of caution, particularly regarding their batting.
“Afghanistan had – and even now have – a very good bowling attack, and their present spinners are also very good. Rashid is a leg-spinner who can be a threat to any batsman. His googly is faster than his leg-spinners,” he said.
But Afghanistan’s issue is their batting, he added.
“If they score 250 or more, batting first, it would become difficult for any team, like it did for England. But they find it difficult to chase. Their mind-set is that of T20. They will have work on their 50-over game. They still don’t know how to rebuild their innings. If they lose four wickets early in a match, they find it difficult to stage a comeback into the game,” Prabhakar underlined.
Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott, a former England player, also underlined the importance of the team remaining on their toes, always.
“I think it’s important that the guys enjoy it (the win over England) but also take stock and realise when they get a certain amount of things right in the 50 or 100 overs, what they can achieve… So, you don’t want to get too far ahead,” he cautioned.
Prabhakar also wondered where the talented Chinaman bowler Zaheer Khan Pakteen, who was with the group during his tenure, has gone. The 24-year-old Khan, who has played four Test matches, one ODI, and four T20 Internationals, besides appearing for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, is not part of the Afghan World Cup squad.
“He was very good and very promising,” Prabhakar said.
No home games
Even as the team makes strides, Afghanistan presently does not possess top-quality cricket infrastructure.
Whatever they have, they cannot use for non-cricketing reasons, partly for political reasons and partly because of teams and individuals declining to visit the country due to security concerns. This has forced them to hold their training/preparatory camps and host ‘home’ internationals overseas.
In fact, Afghanistan have played most of their ‘home’ internationals in India, and at times in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sri Lanka as well.
Because the country lacks the infrastructure for cricket camps, none of their former or current coaches, including Rajput, Prabhakar, and Trott, have visited Afghanistan.
(The writer has covered cricket for over three decades, based in Delhi. He tweets at @AlwaysCricket)
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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