Afghanistan's Hashmatullah Shahidi previews their Cricket World Cup clash with Sri Lanka

NicheSportMedia

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00:00 Zia is going to select questions.

00:02 Yeah, I'm going to.

00:03 OK, no problem.

00:04 Afghanistan is doing so well.

00:08 They're on a roll.

00:10 It is obviously a culmination of a lot of hard work.

00:12 What do you attribute this success to?

00:17 Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.

00:18 Yes, the team is doing good.

00:20 And we are all happy.

00:23 And I can say that we had a good tournament so far and looking forward for the other games also.

00:33 And it will be a best ever tournament for us in World Cup history.

00:41 Captain, after that incredible win in Chennai against Pakistan, you had a six-day break.

00:49 So is it something that you preferred, a six-day break?

00:54 Would that actually give you a good break?

00:56 Or do you think the momentum that you had from that win, it will kind of taper off with this break?

01:02 I think this break is good for us because we had back-to-back games before that.

01:08 And when you play too many games in a short time, the players get tired.

01:15 So that was a good win.

01:20 When you're having rest and think about other games also, that gives you time and also gives rest for the bodies.

01:28 And I can say that was good for us.

01:31 You had a big win against Pakistan.

01:40 Pakistan lost against Australia.

01:43 Now the equation in the points table has changed.

01:46 How do you look at your chances of going up, especially with this game against Sri Lanka?

01:53 What is the position that you're looking at, especially after big teams losing?

01:59 The table is like, we are thinking about the games one by one.

02:08 We have a game against Sri Lanka tomorrow, so we are thinking about that now.

02:13 Our aim and goal is to achieve and go to the next round.

02:19 That's what we are thinking about.

02:21 But from now, we are not thinking about how to go to the semifinals from tomorrow's game.

02:28 We think match by match, and our mindset is busy.

02:34 Tomorrow is the Sri Lankan game.

02:36 Let's see what happens tomorrow.

02:39 Then we will think about other games and moving forward to the semifinals.

02:43 I just wanted to touch upon your batting.

02:48 We saw that you played an aggressive knock against India and against Pakistan also.

02:52 You played close to a runner ball.

02:54 Is there an attempt from you and also Ramesh to an extent to evolve with the times and be more aggressive?

03:02 Sometimes, when we have back-to-back wickets, it definitely puts pressure.

03:11 When I am playing or another guy in the middle order is playing.

03:15 When our team gives us good momentum, we try to take that momentum and move forward.

03:22 We think about that.

03:24 We will see how the situation is in the future games.

03:29 We want to play accordingly.

03:32 If it is early wickets, we have to carry on how to play all 50 overs.

03:39 If it is good momentum, we will try to maintain that and play with a good strike rate.

03:45 Can you talk about the challenges of managing three quality spinners of three different kinds?

03:53 How do you handle it as a captain and should we expect all three of them tomorrow?

03:59 I will not tell you that.

04:01 I plan according to the opposition.

04:07 I see to the opposition and also at the time that we need which kind of bowler.

04:15 I think about that and I give the ball to the same guy.

04:19 I will not tell anything more.

04:23 Harshmit, you went in with a spin-heavy attack in Chennai.

04:28 You have been here training for the past few days.

04:32 How do you assess the conditions?

04:35 This condition is totally different with Chennai one.

04:41 Here we practice at night time and the wicket is a bit skitty.

04:50 We assess that and we know and we will try to take advantage from the practice sessions that we had.

04:58 We will move forward with that.

05:00 We will take that with us.

05:07 How do you feel about the game against Pakistan?

05:11 I think they performed well before this match.

05:13 They already have a winning mentality with winning matches.

05:15 Sri Lanka also came here after winning two matches.

05:19 Their start is not good.

05:22 They lost three consecutive matches.

05:24 How do you feel about that?

05:26 Two teams get together because we had a lot of experience with playing Sri Lanka recently at the Asia Cup.

05:32 You also had a series against Pakistan in Sri Lanka.

05:36 How do you feel about that?

05:38 You have a good challenge against Sri Lanka.

05:40 It will be a tough challenge for both the teams.

05:43 First of all, we played a lot of cricket together from the last one year.

05:47 We know each other very well.

05:49 Coming to the winning point, we also had a win in our last game in India.

05:57 I will tell about our team.

05:59 We have more confidence in that game.

06:03 We will take that with us to the ground.

06:06 We will try to go with a positive intent to the ground and play good cricket.

06:12 We saw your young spinner, Urah Ahmad, really performed well in the first and last game.

06:18 You have two more spinners, Rajit Khan and Mojib.

06:21 Sri Lanka has a problem because their key spinner, Vanitha Asaranga, couldn't get a chance to play due to injury.

06:28 How do you look up to your spinning department and Sri Lanka's spin department?

06:33 I think they have a good team, good bowling.

06:38 If you see, our bowling is our strength also.

06:43 We have good bowling attacks, especially when it comes to the spinners.

06:47 So, definitely pressure will be on them because of our spinners.

06:53 Can you please tell us a bit more about the hard work that went behind the scenes in shaping this team?

06:59 Overall?

07:01 Yeah, we worked on this team for the last two years.

07:08 Consistently, we selected the same team.

07:11 We were struggling in some point of view, especially in death overs and fast bowling department.

07:18 But we tried our best to give that place to someone who can do it for us.

07:28 Navin was not with us, so he joined the World Cup.

07:32 We take him for the World Cup squad and he's doing well right now.

07:37 So, on this team, it's not started from World Cup.

07:41 We were working on this team from last two years.

07:44 We had series against teams like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh consistently.

07:51 We were playing a lot of domestic 50-hour cricket.

07:54 We stick with our plan, we stick with the same team.

07:57 When we were not doing good, we still had a belief on this team and these players.

08:03 We gave them a lot of chances.

08:05 In our good times and in our bad times, we believed in this team.

08:12 Now, that's the reason I think we are playing good cricket in the World Cup.

08:18 You have a world-class bowling attack.

08:24 Your batting has also come along pretty well in the last few matches.

08:30 Do you think this is the first time that Afghanistan starts as a favorite against Sri Lanka?

08:35 Is that confidence in the team?

08:40 I believe in the day who plays good cricket.

08:45 Both the teams are good sides.

08:47 You can say that both are the best teams.

08:50 But whoever plays good cricket, positive cricket, it depends on the day.

08:56 I will say that if we play good, we are the best team.

09:02 If they play, they are the best team.

09:04 We will try our best to play how we finished against Pakistan.

09:10 We will take that with us.

09:12 We will try to play from there and start positively and end also positively.

09:17 Personally, your batting form, how do you rate the progress?

09:26 My one? I think I did well in the last game and also against India.

09:31 I was struggling in some of the games against Bangladesh and England.

09:37 But I talked with coach Jonathan about my batting.

09:42 He gave me a good idea. I can't share it here.

09:46 But one or two words that he told me helped me a lot.

09:51 I will try to take that with me for the rest of the tournament also.

09:57 Last question.

09:59 I think recently, Ramanula Gulbaz, Mohamed Nabi, Noor Ahmed,

10:09 they had a chance to play with the Sri Lankan players during the LPL tournament.

10:14 They played so many cricket with the Sri Lankan players.

10:18 That is a plus point for you because they knew what their mistakes were

10:24 and what type of areas they can perform.

10:27 That is a plus point for you. How do you think about that?

10:30 I think I mentioned before also, we played a lot of cricket with Sri Lanka.

10:35 Keep that LPL aside, we played a lot of ODIs, like 9-10 matches.

10:43 That's more than enough for each and every player.

10:46 So, only not the guys that you mentioned know about them.

10:51 We all know about them and they all know about us.

10:55 Nothing else. Thank you.

11:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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