The Afghanistan cricket team has gone from strength to strength in the recent edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, winning as many as three matches so far in the tournament. The formidable Afghanistan team has managed to defeat the defending champions England, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and currently sits at the 5th spot in the points table, with a reasonable chance of progressing to the semi-finals, albeit having difficult matches ahead.
Afghanistan came to this World Cup with just a single win previously in the ODI World Cup coming against Scotland in the 2015 edition. They ended up losing to Bangladesh in the opener but made a strong comeback by notching up 3 priceless victories. Hashmatullah Shahidi’s team overcame the Sri Lankan challenge most recently in Pune, which led to former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra showering praises on the team.
If Afghanistan had not lost their first match to Bangladesh, they would have been serious contenders for the semi-final race – Aakash Chopra
The former India opener was speaking on his YouTube channel and seemed highly impressed by Hashmatullah Shahidi’s led side’s performance. Chopra observed that Afghanistan victories have come in a dominating fashion wherein they have outplayed the opposition in all aspects of the game and that they would’ve been strong contenders for a semi-final spot if they had not lost to Bangladesh in the tournament opener.
“Afghanistan have won their third game. They first defeated England, then made Pakistan lick dust and now they have said tata bye-bye to Sri Lanka.” said Aakash Chopra.
The cricketer-commentator pointed out that Afghanistan has not been over-reliant on their spinners as usual, with contributions coming from their batters and their pacers as and when the team required their services.
“Afghanistan – a team on the rise. We had discussed pre-tournament as well that you shouldn’t take Afghanistan lightly, that they are a good team who have good spinners and if they start scoring runs in batting, it would be difficult to beat this team. Interestingly enough, they are not winning based on spin” he added.
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