Afghanistan head coach urges ‘team efforts’ in World Cup face-off with Pakistan

CHENNAI: Jonathan Trott, Afghanistan’s head coach, has insisted that his side will not be banking on spinners only to beat a side like Pakistan and all the players will have to play their part.

Afghanistan is set to take on Pakistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup face-off in Chennai on Monday at MA Chidambaram Stadium, a venue that has proven to support the spinners in recent matches.

Based on the condition of the venue, it seems that Afghanistan might have an edge over Pakistan. However, Afghanistan’s team coach believes he does not need to bank up on spinners to beat the Men in Green.

“The thing is — with spinners — there are only two or three of them playing a game. And it’s the other eight as well that have to play the game so that’s important,” Trott said at a press conference on Sunday.

“So, it’s everybody’s job. It’s not just the spinners’ job to win games. It’s a team effort,” he added.

The head coach said that there are seam bowlers in his team as well, “who’ve got to bowl well in whatever conditions we’re confronted with”.

The Afghanistan coach shared that the mindset of the team is that it’s a team game and everybody’s got to put in a good team performance if they want to beat the likes of a strong side like Pakistan.

“We’ve had an ODI series against them recently where we should have won a few games. We didn’t. So hopefully we can put that right tomorrow night,” he said.

Trott also mentioned recent nail-biting finishes between the two teams which makes the game an important rivalry saying his side is excited about playing against Pakistan.

“I think for them it’s a rivalry that excites them. I think it’s a rivalry that in the past has been very passionate. We’ve seen Asia Cup clashes and matches that have been very exciting. No closer than the T20 Asia Cup last year where it went down with Pakistan won by one wicket,”

“So, we’ve had very close games as well. So, they’ve been very good, very interesting and exciting games. Hopefully, tomorrow isn’t very exciting and we win by a lot. But I’m sure we’ll see an exciting game tomorrow. It’s just the nature of the rivalry, I should say. And both teams, I think, respect each other, but are very desperate to win. So, I’m looking forward to it,” he said.

Replying to a question, Trott said that his side always looks to put pressure on the opposition.

He added that they are not thinking about how Pakistan played in the last two games.

“I don’t think there’s any thoughts with regards to their previous matches. I think when Afghanistan play Pakistan, I think there’s you know that a lot of form doesn’t come into the game. There’s a lot of other things that come into the game with regards to the rivalry and the history of and the passion of everything. So, we know the Pakistan team will be very determined to win tomorrow and certainly want to sort of snap that losing streak of the two games that you just mentioned,” he said.

“But again, we want to win just as much as they do, so that should be good,” he concluded.