LAHORE: It is Australia vs Afghanistan: the world champions against an emerging squad making strides gradually in top-level international cricket.
After ousting Jos Buttler’s England from the ICC Champions Trophy in a high-scoring clash here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Wednesday night, the proud Hashmatullah Shahidi-led Afghans must be pumped up for their last group ‘B’ encounter against Steve Smith and his men at the same venue.
If Australia (currently having three points) win on Friday, they will reach the last four along with South Africa (three). Whereas in case Afghanistan (two) triumph they will qualify, while the second semi-finalist team from group ‘B’ will be decided after the match between England (zero) and South Africa scheduled for March 1 in Karachi.
The common worry for both the teams will be Friday’s weather which according to the forecast is going to be rainy. It rained on Thursday forcing Afghanistan to cancel their training while Australia held their practice session indoors.
If the match is abandoned due to rain, Australia with four points will make the semis while Afghanistan — with three points — will exit the event.
Afghanistan are yet to win an ODI against Australia in the four games held between the countries so far. Shahidi’s team came mighty close to record their first victory at the 2023 World Cup before Glenn Maxwell cracked an out-of-this-world double century to steer Aussies to a thrilling three-wicket victory.
Interestingly, both Australia and Afghanistan won their respective group-stage games against England in Lahore and therefore they will be looking to start today’s battle on almost equal footing.
While Australia haven’t lost in the two group games they have played so far in the eight-nation event, Afghanistan suffered a 107-run thrashing at the hands of South Africa in Karachi.
However, Shahidi played down the role of Maxwell’s stunning knock in the 2023 World Cup.
“You think we will come only to play with Maxwell? We have planned for [the whole] Australian team [while] the 2023 World Cup is part of history now,” the Afghanistan skipper said during a pre-match media conference on Thursday.
“After that [2023 World Cup] we beat them in the [2024] T20 World Cup. We know about the opposition and we are not going to have a plan for an individual player; we will try our best to play according to our plan,” a determined Shahidi added.
He also praised opener Ibrahim Zadran for his career-best 177 against England which steered Afghanistan to victory.
Shahidi insisted that his team’s top priority was to give their best against Australia, setting aside the semi-final qualification as a goal.
“Yes, Australia are a tough team; they are the best one, everyone knows. However, whenever a team play an international game, they have their own plans and they look for opposition players on their strengths and weak points. [So] we have our plans for tomorrow,” he said.
“We have a plan but I don’t think that this is the right place to share [the plan] with you guys here. Let us keep it with us as a team and look forward to the game,” the captain responded when asked what his team had planned against Australia.
After beating England in a nail-biting finish on Wednesday, Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott had expressed the importance of the match against Australia.
“They [players] enjoy tonight; when they wake up tomorrow, [they will] be ready for Australia,” former England batter Trott had said.
AUSSIES PREPARED
Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne, unlike Shahidi, gave some hints about their game plan against Afghanistan.
“Well, I mean I think we will be targeting both sides, with the bat and with the ball. If we are batting, we will be looking to combat their spin through the middle which has been their really strong point,” Labuschagne told reporters.
“Different parts of the game we are going to attack, so we are just going to have to be, play what’s in front of us tomorrow,” he added.
Labuschagne underlined that Afghanistan were a strong team both in batting and bowling.
“Their pace attack is also very good. They finished off the game [against England] really well. And then we saw that they have got batters,” the right-hander added.
Answering a question regarding the preparations, he said Australia were always ready for the big event.
“I think most of our preparation sort of came before this tournament. Obviously, we have had a training rained off and the game rained off out against South Africa and our training now is indoors. So, the boys have played a lot. We are ready to go. Obviously, when you come to these tournaments you have to be prepared to play,” the 30-year-old said.
When asked whether he treats Afghanistan as underdogs, Labuschagne said they would look to produce their best against an impressive side like Afghanistan.
“I am not a pundit or someone that deems if they are underdogs or not. We are playing Afghanistan and we know how good they are and we know the skill level that they play with, but we are going to make sure we come really well prepared and put a really good performance together,” he said.
Afghanistan were given strong support by crowds in Lahore but Labuschagne said that will only stimulate Australia, saying “we would love to win and silence the crowd and really put that on”.
About a question about Cricket Australia’s stance against Afghanistan over not allowing women’s cricket he said: “Obviously, it is an ICC tournament and our game as the schedule came out we are playing Afghanistan. Personally, for me, which I can speak of, I have got no issues about playing tomorrow.
“But obviously there have been some stances from us at Cricket Australia in the past. But we are just focusing on tomorrow’s game where we are playing Afghanistan,” he concluded.
Teams (from):
AUSTRALIA: Steve Smith (captain), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa.
AFGHANISTAN: Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Ikram Alikhil, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Nangyal Kharoti, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Farid Malik, Naveed Zadran.
Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2025
