Karachi: hashmatullah Shahidi suffocated a smile, but the corners of his mouth betrayed his emotion every time the Afghanistan fan continued in Karachi was mentioned during his press conference here Wednesday.
Shahidi’s team will become the first Afghanistan team to play here at the National Bank Stadium when they face South Africa in its opening of the ICC champions trophy on Friday, and team fans hope to appear in the place in numbers .
The metropolis is home to a massive population of Afghan and Shahidi diaspora could not deny that many of them would be their twelfth man against proteins.
“… There are many Afghas, they live here in Karachi and Pakistan and also in many people Pashtun, I think they support us,” Shahidi said, mentioning how fans arrived before during the practice sessions of Afghanistan. “… yesterday there were many crowds shouting for us and feels good and gives us confidence that we have followers here and our performance.”
Although it is the first time that Afghanistan plays in the city, they have a good sense of conditions and releases here, thanks to the regular appearances of the Afghan players over the years in the Super League of Pakistan, while some of them also They have played Cricket in the country in the country.
“We have played matches here before, many players have played in PSL and in the last Asia Cup we have also played games here in Lahore,” Shahidi said. “The second important thing is that the condition here resembles many releases in our country.
“Our players have a lot of experience in these Asian releases, and we play many games in Dubai and India, so these releases do not have much difference.”
The conditions at stake make Afghanistan one of the most dangerous teams playing in the tournament, equipped with a rotating battery with characters such as Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed and veteran Mohammad Nabi. The team also has the presence of explosive batters in Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran.
“There will be an advantage for us because we have good spinners,” Shahidi said. “And if we see the conditions here, they are very good to hit.”
South Africa, who was defeated by Afghanistan when they met for the last time in an international series of one day, has also gained some form of familiarity with the conditions in Pakistan.
The team participated in the Tri-Nation series, which involves the hosts and New Zealand, preceding the Champions Trophy. However, directed by Temba Bavuma, the Odi form of South Africa has been poor lately, with losses in its last five games.
Bavuma knows that they will face a solid team in their first Champions Trophy game. “We have an adequate opening game against Afghanistan that are super competitive, especially in these types of conditions,” he admitted in the press prior to the Conference Party. “Then, the challenge they will bring from a slow point of view of bowling, their spinners and their bowling players, and also their balancing players, their sailors, that will really ask us certain questions.”
With several of his best missing players in the Tri-Nation series, South Africa will enter the Champions Trophy with a full force team, except for the absence of the pacemaker Anrich Nortje.
But all eyes will be in their blunt duo of Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, who would prosper in the friendly Wickt with the bat in Karachi.
“From a batting point of view, the marker pressure is a great thing. The boys enter, making sure they are great so that we can challenge for those 330 – 340 – 350 types of scores, ”said Bavuma. “So yes, I think with all that should be exciting.”
Posted in Dawn, February 21, 2025
