ICC World Cup 2019 | We are aiming for a semi-final berth, said Dawlat Khan Ahmadzai
Chief Afghanistan selector Dawlat Khan Ahmadzai has revealed that he has high hopes for the national team and expects them to reach the semi-finals at the upcoming ICC ODI World Cup. Ahmadzai further spoke about the unrest within the team after Asghar Afghan was dropped as ODI skipper.
The Afghanistan national cricket team will definitely enter the 2019 ICC ODI World Cup as underdogs, but who doesn’t love a good underdog story? Afghanistan chief selector, Dawlat Khan Ahmadzai, revealed that he hopes Afghanistan can make it to last four of the mega event and surprise a few teams.
"There was no Rashid or Mujeeb in 2015 so this time we are aiming for a semifinal berth. With the team composition we have, we can definitely surprise a few teams. Hamid Hasan is back into the fast bowling attack and that is a big boost. He has been a great fast bowler for Afghanistan and will lead the pace attack alongside Dawlat Zadran," Ahmadzai told PTI sources.
However, there was quite a lot of commotion last month after the announcement of Afghanistan cricketer Gulbadin Naib as the new captain of the national team in place of veteran Asghar Afghan ahead of the impending ICC ODI World Cup which starts at the end of May. Ahmadzai, who is a former Afghanistan cricketer, offered his reasoning behind the controversial decision whose timing was questioned by senior players like Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi.
"We realised that we can't win the World Cup at this moment under Asghar's captaincy or anyone else who would have been in charge. We made the decision not just thinking about this World Cup, we are thinking about the 2023 edition.
“We will be getting 10 matches with full members and we feel it will provide perfect training for the new captain (Gulbadin Naib). Like you are expressing your concern to me, there were concerns expressed by the players (Rashid and Nabi) and the entire issue was handled professionally. They felt it was not the right time to change captaincy but later understood that it was in the best interest of the team,” the selector added.
