‘Belonging to a war-torn country, Afghans don’t fear 140-plus deliveries as we do’

It is not unknown to anyone that Bangladesh are still to come to terms with the T20 format -- a rudimentary assessment of the Tigers' T20 calibre and a glance at how the Tigers fared in the previous editions of the T20 World Cup would be enough to realise that. 

Meanwhile, Afghanistan, one of the latest entrants to the ICC full members list, have already turned themselves into a team to not be taken lightly in the shortest format with T20 specialists like Rashid Khan, their skipper, Mohammad Nabi, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Mujeeb Ur Rahman in their ranks. 

Afghans are, however, ranked 10th in the T20I rankings, one spot behind the Tigers -- whose recent series win over Zimbabwe, a side that failed to qualify for the upcoming T20 World Cup, helped them boost their rating points.

While comparing the Afghanistan side with Bangladesh in T20Is, former Bangladesh skipper Mohammad Ashraful said that it is the fearless attitude of the Afghans that has transformed the side into a well-rounded T20 unit. 

"Look, they [Afghanistan players] come from a war-torn country, so, they don't fear facing 140-plus (kmph) deliveries like our players," Ashraful told The Daily Star during a recent interview. 

Bangladesh had the upper hand during their only meeting with Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup, beating the Afghans by nine wickets in 2014 in Mirpur. 

The Najmul Hossain Shanto-led Bangladesh are currently in the USA to play a three-match series, being played as part of their preparation for the upcoming ninth edition of the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies from June 2. The Tigers will begin their World Cup campaign against familiar foes Sri Lanka on June 8 in Dallas following warm-up games against the USA and title-contenders India on May 28 and June 1, respectively. 

Assessing the Tigers' squad combination for this T20 World Cup, Ashraful said: "Given the resources we have, the best-possible 15 have been named for the World Cup. Although questions could be raised over the performances of players like Liton [Das] and Shanto, they are the best we have. Shanto scored two fifties (against Zimbabwe and Pakistan) and Liton scored a brilliant fifty (a 27-ball 60 against India) in the 2022 T20 World Cup. So, they have played well in ICC events and we need to trust them."  

Having played in all the previous eight editions of the T20 World Cup, Bangladesh have never been able to go past the group stage of the mega event. One of their commendable campaigns in the showpiece event was in the last edition in 2022 in Australia where they beat Zimbabwe and the Netherlands in the group stage.  

Bangladesh are placed in Group D alongside Sri Lanka, South Africa, Netherlands and Nepal.