KABUL (SW): The national cricket team on Monday returned home after winning the Inter-Continental Cup, but losing a One Day International (ODI) series to Ireland in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Raees Ahmadzai, head coach of the national team, told journalists at the Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport that the reason behind defeat to Ireland was the ‘white ball’. He said the team trained with red ball in India, and played all matches of the Inter-Continental Cup with the red ball that is why it struggled in demonstrating good performance with the white ball against Ireland in the ODI series.
Ahmadzai said, as head coach, he expected the team to clean-sweep Ireland after the initial victory in the first match, but batsmen let him down in the next two matches for which Ireland prepared well. The head coach pronounced the series loss as a ‘wake-up call’ for the national team that is bracing for the forthcoming series against Zimbabwe, and qualifiers for the 2019 ICC World Cup.
Expressing confidence in the team, Ahmadzai said the batsmen including Captain Asghar Stanikzai have a proven record of chasing difficult targets, and should not be grilled for a single defeat. Stanikzai and a number of other players were not with the team that landed in Kabul due to their commitments with their clubs for different commercial cricket leagues.
Defeat against Ireland has also deprived Afghanistan of the 10th slot it occupied for a while in the ICC Ranking. The national team would depart for Zimbabwe for a five-ODI and three T20 matches in February next year.
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