Afghanistan had a long gap since playing their last T20 World Cup group stage game in February, and the defeat to India has exposed exactly where they currently stand right now in terms of the shortest format. “We’ve got a lot to work on. That’s a really long break. We’ve been benchmarked, tested and we can see where our deficits are. Now we need to go to work.
Afghanistan head coach Richard Pybus said his side had been ‘benchmarked’ and ‘tested’ by India in their 3-0 T20I series loss to the heavyweights and admitted there was ‘nowhere to hide’ for them after being bowled out for 94 in the third T20I at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
I think I said the other day this is our first T20 series since the World Cup.
Some of these guys have just come back into the squad for the first time since then.
Afghanistan head coach Richard Pybus said his side had been benchmarked’ and tested’ by India in their 3-0 T20I series loss to the heavyweights and admitted there was nowhere to hide’ for them after being bowled out for 94 in the third T20I at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
“We were poor. We were pleased to start off with winning the toss and getting an opportunity to chase. “We’ve got to execute our game plan. We didn’t deliver. I thought that up front with Ibrahim and Gurbaz, we were much better in terms of our intent. We brought our game to the Indian opening bowlers, but we couldn’t hold that consistency. Pybus stated the problem was execution under pressure, not the batting order. “I don’t think it’s much of the batting order, it’s the execution. Ibrahim and Gurbaz at the top of the order are an established pair. Again I thought our intent was much better. I thought we were too passive in the last game. I thought we let India bowl to us. So I was happier with the way that we took on the Indian attack. So there are areas for all of our players to improve and a little bit like with the bowling, against an attack as good as India’s, you’re facing Jasprit and Axar – these are absolutely world-class operators and you’ve got to be very clear in your game plans. “So we’ve got work to do and really to come here and play in India against the best T20 side in the world and understand what it’s like to play under pressure – this isn’t league cricket, it isn’t international cricket against lower-ranked sides. This is the ultimate examination. So we can see very clearly what we’ve got to work on. “If there is an issue with a side where the opposition have got the wood over you, when you work through that, you do it stage by stage.
Our first 10 overs with the ball – our control wasn’t good enough and Abhishek and Sanju batted beautifully up front. I was really pleased with the way we came back from 10 to 20 overs. “Again it comes back to execution under pressure and you’re chasing 220, you’ve just got to keep on going. With the 2028 T20 World Cup in view, Pybus felt any mental hold big teams like India have over Afghanistan would have to be broken one step at a time.
I thought our fight back was phenomenal, skills and intent in the field was much better,” Pybus said in the post-match press conference.
