Afghanistan can learn to control pressure and emotions only by playing top teams regularly: Ahmadzai

Raees Ahmadzai, Afghanistan’s assistant coach, has implored the ICC and other Full Members to play them often to help develop quality, improved game sense and the ability to close out matches under pressure.

Since 2021, Afghanistan have only played Ireland, Netherlands, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in bilateral series. Their maiden tour to Australia, which was first postponed because of Covid-19 in 2020, was called off late last year.

Afghanistan defeated Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the group stage of the ongoing Asia Cup T20I tournament, but lost their Super Four matches against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India.

“It’s important for a team like us to play against top-level teams,” Ahmadzai said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.com. “It’s not easy. I can’t remember when we last played India or Pakistan. Playing one or two matches against them in top-level tournaments is not enough. It will help if we play them more often.

“Only then can our players learn to control their emotions, control pressure and learn from [the experience]. I feel we deserve that. The way we started in the Asia Cup, giving a tough time to the other teams, I think we did well. Our win over Sri Lanka was a one-sided win, we beat Bangladesh. But we have to improve on the basics. Our players realise where we should be more focused so that we can finish the way we started.”

Defending 130 against Pakistan, Afghanistan restricted 118 for 9 with seven balls left. Then Naseem Shah smashed two sixes off full tosses to secure win for Pakistan. The next day on Thursday, Afghanistan suffered a 101-run loss against India.

Ahmadzai revealed the team had been “sleepless” following the Pakistan loss, because of how much it took out of them mentally, having lost a game they believed was theirs.

“To be honest, everyone panicked in that situation [when Pakistan were nine down],” Ahmadzai revealed. But then we played back-to-back games, and we tried our best. The way we looked at the wicket, I thought we could restrict India to 170 or 180. But if you drop a catch of a good player like Kohli, he won’t give you too many opportunities.”

According to Ahmadzai, some individual performances were source of encouragement as Afghanistan build towards the T20 World Cup in Australia.

“If you’re playing against the big names, the big stars, you always get to learn a lot. During the tournament we spent some time with the Pakistani and Sri Lankan players also. It was a good experience, something our players can learn [from] and apply at the World Cup.”