Lahore [Pakistan], February 27 (ANI): After registering a win over England at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Wednesday, Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott said that his team’s focus will now shift to their next game against Australia on Friday at the same venue.
Afghanistan have a chance to qualify for the semi-final stage in back-to-back ICC Men’s limited-overs tournaments.
Having shocked the world in last year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Trott’s side are now just one win away from reaching the final four yet again.
It is why he ensured that celebrations following their win against England were only short-lived.
“I’m going to make sure when they wake up tomorrow, they enjoy tonight, (but) wake up tomorrow ready for Australia. As soon as they wake up tomorrow, the focus is on Australia,” he told the media after their nail-biting victory over the English as quoted by ICC.
It is why he ensured that celebrations following their win against England were only short-lived.
“Australia aren’t going to take us lightly. So, we’ve got to be prepared. In the past, perhaps people would have seen the fixture and thought it was a little bit easier than playing a historic Test nation. But in this format, in these conditions, I don’t see that.,” the former England player continued.
“Since I’ve been coach we’ve played against Australia three times and we’ve been in the game each of those games. So, we should take a lot of confidence from that. And I think certainly what happened in the World Cup, T20 World Cup, and I say this to the players as well, that Afghanistan’s never going to be taken lightly ever again. I see every game that we play is going to be competitive and every game we go into I expect to win, he added.
Trott has overseen Afghanistan’s rise to cricketing prominence firsthand, crediting the team’s increasing resilience and ability to compete with the world’s top teams.
“There’s a resilience to them. I think if you add to some cricketing experience and cricketing match awareness with regards to batting in particular, with regards to how you pace the innings … it’s not always down to one person. We saw Ibrahim, the way that he’s done today, we’ve seen Gurbaz do it in the past … we have Gulbadin at eight at the moment, who can come in and change games. So that self-belief is important and it starts within, but it’s also quite infectious and it spreads within the squad,” he said.
Their clash with Australia is now, effectively, a quarter-final, with the winner securing a place in the semi-finals and the loser facing elimination.
With so much at stake, Trott hopes for strong support at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday.
“Hopefully Friday will be a massive sell out and people will turn up or take the day off work and come and watch us from two o’clock onwards. I think it’s great for the guys. I think it’s a huge experience and these players will never forget nights like this. We’ve had a few other nights along the way in ICC events and series’ and that will just add to the confidence that we should hopefully take in on Friday.” (ANI)
