“Broken Plane as Dressing Room”: Former Afghanistan Player Narrates Story of Team’s Early Days in the Support
Storming into Super 8, Afghanistan defeated Papua New Guinea by 7 wickets at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad on June 14. It is the first time, Afghans have reached the Super Eights stage in the history of the T20 International cricket.
Earlier Afghanistan, in the group stage fixtures defeated Uganda and New Zealand. In the first match, Uganda was defeated by 125 runs and next New Zealand lost to Afghanistan by 84 runs. The first two wins at group stage made the team’s chances of entering Super Eights, stronger. And defeating PNG, secured their place in the Super Eights.
Afghanistan is emerging as a formidable competitor in the world of cricket. And their impressive growth and progress has gained the team, an international recognition. Meanwhile, former Afghanistan player, Raees Ahmedzai reminisced about the early days of the team in the sport.
Raees Ahmedzai Speaks About Afghanistan’s Journey
Speaking to former Pakistan cricketer and coach, Rashid Latif, the former Afghanistan cricketer, Raees Ahmedzai commented about Afghanistan’s expectations and journey in the world of cricket,
“We were not expecting it in the start that the time will come we will be playing on high level, people will count on us. We will be representing the country in a very high level and we will produce such a wonderful player and they will play around in the world in different leagues…”
He further pointed out the significant role played by the Afghan Cricketers,
“Our players, the way they played in the recent World Cup and the way we played in the last 50 Over World Cup. So, it is something very special that the cricketers did for Afghanistan.”
Rashid Khan captains the Afghanistan team in T20 World Cup 2024.
Talking about the broken plane, Raees reminisced about the practicing time for Afghanistan in old days using the plane as a dressing room, “This was our pavilion.“
Evolution of Afghan Team Over The Years
In 2016, Afghanistan was hardly known to cricket fans as they entered the Super 10s. Then in 2021 and 2022, the Afghan team made it to Super 12s.
Over time, Afghanistan players have played a crucial roles in their national teams progress with Rashid Khan taking the lead in ongoing T20 World Cup 2024.
For the first time with collective efforts of players like Muhammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rehman and of course Rashid Khan has made it to Super 8s stage of the major international tournament, knocking out a team like New Zealand. Afghanistan cricket team must be eyeing the T20 World Cup trophy, given their dedication and perseverance.
Tabinda Mir is a writer from Kashmir. She is an English Honours graduate and her interests primarily dwell in poetry and sports writing. She likes to cover Cricket as an avid fan. Apart from sports, her other publications include articles, poems and a letter to summer in the book titled, “Under The Summer Skies”.
Also, her leisure time activities include reading novels, poetry, non literary works, philosophies and writing poetry, short stories, articles on diverse themes.
