T20 World Cup: Umesh Patwal cautions India about Afghanistan’s giantkillers

Nidhi Tiwari

theindiaprint|20-06-2024

The former batting coach for Afghanistan, Umesh Patwal, has cautioned India to exercise extreme caution when they take on the Rashid Khan-led squad in the T20 World Cup Super Eight match on Thursday in Barbados. Patwal cites India’s history of upsetting elite teams in international white-ball competitions.

In eight men’s Twenty20 international matches, India has never lost against Afghanistan.

When India and Afghanistan last faced one another at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru this year, they were knotted at 212 and had to go into two Super Overs before the team captained by Rohit Sharma won.

In the ODI World Cup last year, Afghanistan showed what they could do to England and other powerful sides, so India will need to exercise extreme caution. India is, I believe, the only team they haven’t yet defeated, so they would worry about that first. They accomplished as I had expected, defeating a few elite teams.

Thus, India has to exercise caution in how they approaches Afghanistan this time.

Coming into the Super Eights, no one wants to pass up such a significant opportunity. They drew with India at the 2018 Asia Cup in Dubai, as I recall. Therefore, whether it’s Australia or India, that’s the one step they would be wanting to take this time,” Patwal said in a Mumbai interview with IANS.

Group 1 of the Super Eights consists of Australia and Bangladesh, excluding Afghanistan and India. “Maxwell scored a double-hundred in that pivotal encounter during the ODI World Cup last year. So this is the appropriate moment for them to return.

The players will be thinking about all of these things.

You won’t be shocked to see them in the top two of their group in the Super Eights, because I really believe they will be among the top four. Even during the ODI World Cup last year, I had the same assumption that they would get to the semifinals. Because they are playing so well, I won’t be shocked if they get it to the last four here,” Patwal said.

In addition, the former batting coach hopes that Afghanistan would bat first against Australia and India so that they can put more pressure on the powerful sides in the second innings.

They might win the toss and choose to bat first against Australia and India, merely making sure to apply a lot of pressure in the second innings.

“They would want to bowl first and win the game against Bangladesh. Given how Australia and India bat against spinners, this may work to their great benefit. But, as I said, they now have an extra edge since left-arm fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi is doing considerably better.

Recall that during the 2016 T20 World Cup, Afghanistan defeated the West Indies at Nagpur, India, in the only match that the latter lost on a pitch that was favourable to spin.

The hitters weren’t playing well earlier. But now they would be happier, even if they had to chase around 160 on these wickets,” he said.

Patwal, who was also Nepal’s batting coach, pointed out that Afghanistan, who were bowled out for 114 when the West Indies scored 218/5 against them earlier this week in St Lucia, might find it difficult to reach a target of more than 160.

“It was demonstrated that if the flow of runs doesn’t start from the outset, they don’t get them quickly on the board and then tend to panic,” said the Afghanistan player, after the West Indies’ massive total in St Lucia.

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