Afghanistan appears to be the popular choice globally for cricket fans’ second-favorite international team but still needs more support.
When Afghanistan takes the field on Sunday, they will need to have more supporters rooting for them than ever before.
Presently, Twitter is already full of India fans with Afghanistan flags next to their usernames. R Ashwin has already joked about India extending the services of their physiotherapist to speed up Mujeeb Ur Rahman’s recovery from the injury that’s kept him out of Afghanistan’s last two games.
New Zealand and Afghanistan are both still in the semi-finals race. New Zealand has the simpler task – win and they’re through, no matter what India does later against Namibia. And if they do go through, they’ll be on road to complete a hugely impressive set of all-formats results in ICC tournaments – they were ODI World Cup runners-up in 2019, and they clinched the World Test Championship mace earlier this year.
An Afghanistan victory is more feasible to send India into the semis than themselves, but given how improbable their journey has been in getting as far as they have as a cricketing force, why would one rule out another unlikely turn in the road? Afghanistan has the power, with the bat and more so with the ball, to make that happen – more so if Mujeeb is fit. It’s unclear though if Mujeeb is fit to play, but if he is, he’s likely to take the place of the left-arm spinner Sharafuddin Ashraf, who was invaluable against India on the same ground.
Right now, it is difficult to predict what will happen in these largely uncertain times for this brilliant group of players, so whether you’re an Afghanistan fan, an India fan, or anyone else, we all will be sure to wish them well.
Afghanistan and New Zealand are yet to meet in a T20I, but have played each other at the 2015 and 2019 ODI World Cups.
Comment: “They’re spearheaded by Rashid Khan, Mujeeb [Ur Rahman] is phenomenal as well and Mohammad Nabi is a very cagey offspinner through the powerplay too. That’s definitely where the threat lies with their bowling attack and I’m sure all our batsmen during our scouting meeting have taken that into consideration.”