Inzamam-ul-Haq

Khaama Press
December 20, 2015

The head coach of the Afghanistan national cricket team Inzamam-ul-Haq has said the Afghan team should get to play against top teams on regular basis, insisting that the Afghan team needs exposure against the big teams.

Inzamam is hopeful that the Afghan team will perform well in the upcoming ICC Twenty20 World Cup scheduled for 2016 in India, saying “Everybody in the team are stroke players. They are all very good Twenty20 format players too and I am sure they have the ability to perform well in the Twenty20 World Cup.”

In an interview with Gulf News, Inzamam pointed towards the areas of improvement the Afghan team requires to meet the international requirements. “We lack in fitness. We know that our fitness is not top level and they don’t meet the international requirements. We are working hard on that part and within two to three months we will cover this area.”

According to Inzamam, some of the Afghan players can go on to become world-class players. “It is not easy now because Afghanistan’s first-class cricket has to get better. The biggest advantage they have is their love for cricket and hence it is easy to mould players into top class players,” he added.

This comes as the Afghan team recorded consecutive historic wins against Zimbabwe in the month of October by claiming series wins both in One Day International (ODI) and T20 series.

Afghanistan will once again play 5 One Day International (ODI) matches and 2 Twenty20 matches against Zimbabwe ahead of the T20 World Cup 2016.

The ODI matches will kick later this week with the first match to be played on 25th December, 2nd match on 29th December, 3rd match on 2nd January, 4th match on 4th January and final match will be played on 6th January.

The two T20 matches are scheduled for January 8th and 10th. All 5 ODI matches and the two T20 matches will be played in Shahrjah Cricket stadium.