‘If Afghanistan winning matches in T20 World Cup is a dream, I don’t want to wake up’ – Afghan fans celebrate their glorious march into semifinals

“I don’t have words. We are in the semifinals. We are among the top four teams in the world. It is something very special not only to the cricketers but for this whole country as well,” Wakil Ahmad, a final year engineering student at Lucknow University, tells the Indian Express.

“The best thing that has happened with this is that Australia has been knocked out. They don’t want to play cricket with us because of the decisions of the Taliban regime for not allowing women’s teams to play. But they must understand, the only thing Taliban promote in Afghanistan is cricket and you never know if Australia will play with us, with time, they will let our girls play as well,” he adds.

In Delhi’s mini Kabul, Bhogal, Haseebullah Siddiqi, a childhood friend of Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, can’t wait to welcome his friend and team, when they come to India to play three ODIs and three T20Is against Bangladesh in Greater Noida, starting from July 25.

“Gurbaz has been the difference, isn’t he? We always had good bowlers but my friend with his bat is making all the difference,” says Haseebullah. He adds: “I was so happy with the way he batted against Australia.”

Afghanistan assistant coach Raees Ahmadzai, who has played 5 ODIs and 8 T20Is for his country credited Afghanistan’s success story to India and Indian Premier League (IPL).

“It is not a fluke. We deserve to be in the top four. This is not a gift from anyone, we have earned it. We worked hard, we performed well, we executed our plans,” Ahmadzai tells the Indian Express.

“To be honest, one thing that has helped Afghanistan cricket grow is the leagues around the world, especially the IPL. Playing in the IPL has given us immense confidence. Our bowlers getting the wicket of top batters of the world, our batters hammering sixes off world’s best bowlers in the IPL has given them the self-belief that they can replicate that same thing for their country as well,” he explains.

“IPL has changed the mentality. It took away the phobia of big names from the game. IPL treats everyone equally. If you have skill and you can perform, the franchise treats you like a king. We are very lucky that most of our players from the current team are playing for the different franchise in the IPL,” he adds.

Out of the eleven that played against Bangladesh, eight cricketers have IPL contracts, including their captain Rashid Khan (Gujarat Titans), their veteran Mohammad Nabi (Mumbai Indians), team’s run-scorer Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Kolkata Knight Riders), tournament leading wicket-taker Fazalhaq Farooqi (Sunrisers Hyderabad), player of the match against Bangladesh Naveen-ul-Haq (Lucknow Super Giants).

Ahmadzai says Afghan cricketers have indeed benefitted from the money that comes with the IPL but them playing in the top league has given kids across the country hope.

“We Afghans don’t think about money or the luxurious life. We never think about any of those things. People say that IPL is easy money, but is it? No one will pay you if you don’t have talent. Our boys have that required skillset, which has forced the franchise owners to invest in them. It is a good message to all the kids in our country to dream big. I believe there are more talents in our country, that we still haven’t unearthed but because of Rashid, Nabi, Gurbaz, Naveen, I am sure they will also turn up to their local academies to chase their dream. The numbers in the academies in our country have increased massively after the way we performed in the 2023 ODI World Cup,” he says.

Rashid Khan in his post-match presentation has said how the win against New Zealand in the group stage gave the side self-belief. Raees Ahmadzai shares his conversation with the Afghanistan captain after they qualified for the Super Eight stage.

Afghanistan fans
celebrate in Jalalabad (Nangarhar) and Khost province.

“The first thing Rashid told me was that ‘Coach, for me World Cup has started now.’ He was confident of making it to the semifinals. And look at the way he has bowled today when we were under pressure. The way he batted, and hit those three sixes, which proved to be the difference. He showed the other batters that if they could have been a bit more brave, we could have scored more,” he says.

In the last two games, Rashid, who generally looks like a very calm personality on the field was seen animated. Against Australia, he hurled a mouthful to his clone Noor Ahmad after he misfielded. Against Bangladesh, he literally threw the bat on Karim Janat in disgust after his partner refused to run the two and shouted at Gulbadin Naib after he faked his hamstring injury. Then there was the animated chat with Naveen-ul-Haq before he trapped Mustafizur Rahman.

“He will never compromise on cricket. He absolutely hates mediocrity. He has brought that professionalism to our cricket, which was missing. You will see him chilling, relaxing just doing his things, when he is playing in the leagues. The moment he wears that Afghanistan jersey, he becomes a different beast. He will not accept a mistake,” says Ahmadzai.

“The expectations from Rashid is massive. He is like Sachin to the Afghans. Every time he steps into the ground, people will expect him to win matches on his own,” laughs Ahmadzai.

Ahmadzai also tips his hat off to Englishmen Jonathan Trott, who according to him has instilled that winning mentality.

“I work very closely with Trotty. He keeps telling the boys that they are a bunch of wonderful talented cricketers. He keeps giving them the confidence. After we lost against Australia at Wankhede I remember his dressing room speech. He said ‘I have never seen any team working so hard, I have never seen individuals pushing themselves so hard to succeed.’ He told the boys that talent-wise, this team is right up there, it is the winning mentality that they must create. They shouldn’t panic in the crunch situation, they must hold their nerves and if they will be able do that they will beat any team in the world,” recollects Ahmadzai.

In his pre-match speech, which the Afghanistan Cricket Board posted on their Youtube channel, Trott said: “Today we shouldn’t feel worried about achieving something we haven’t done before, because we’ve done it regularly since last year. Think back, we beat Pakistan for the first time in a T20 series. We beat Bangaldesh away as a white ball side. We beat England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the World Cup. We just beat New Zealand for the first time ever. We just beat Australia for the first time ever. We deserve to feel confident.”

In Kandhaar, Rahmatullah Sherzad, a local cricket commentator explains what this victory means for the country.

“I can see kids, who can hardly afford food for two times, celebrating and dancing on the streets. I have literally tears in my eyes. I can’t remember when was the last time people of this country had so much joy,” he says.

“The visuals that are coming from Kabul, Khost, Kandhaar, Nangarhar, Paktiya are amazing. This sport has united this country like it never had. I don’t know what lies ahead but if this is a dream then I don’t want to get up,” says Sherzad with a heavy voice.