Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi hopes leg-spin wizard Rashid Khan “delivers” against India at the World Cup on Wednesday as they attempt to stay on track after an opening defeat in the tournament.
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The Afghans were completely outplayed by Bangladesh, losing by six wickets after being bowled out for just 156 in Dharamsala on Saturday.
The 25-year-old Rashid, who has 172 wickets in 95 ODI matches, went wicketless in that match but remains Afghanistan’s key bowler.
“Rashid is the best bowler in ODI and T20s, so whatever the opposition is doing, we don’t care about that,” said Shahidi.
“Like how they want to play Rashid, but for us the important thing is how he has planned against the opposition. So that matters for us.”
Shahidi added: “He has the quality and whenever it’s his day, he can do anything against the opposition, so we are expecting and we are hopeful that he delivers in tomorrow’s game.”
Shahidi said, however, spin alone will not win them matches.
“I made a statement at the beginning that we will play good cricket as a batting side. We have a good spin bowling attack, but only one department can’t win you games,” Shahidi told reporters.
“In the Bangladesh game, I know we didn’t do well batting, but as a team we have that belief that we can come back in the next game and throughout the tournament. So the belief is there and the talent is there and we will try to move on.”
Playing India at home comes with added pressure and Shahidi said the Afghans will not be overwhelmed by an expected packed house at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
“When it’s the opposition’s home, there will be crowd pressure,” said Shahidi.
“Especially in India, there are a lot of expectations that the stadium will be packed but as a team our talks are like we have to make these things simple. We need to focus on our own game and try to deliver our own game.”
The two teams have only played each other on three occasions in the 50-over format with India winning two and one game ending in a tie.