At the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Afghanistan and Pakistan will square off in the 22nd match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. Jonathan Trott, the head coach of Afghanistan, has issued a harsh warning, stressing that success cannot rely exclusively on his team’s spinners. Despite playing a crucial part in the successful performance against England last week, the batters have significantly underperformed on the biggest stages.
While the pacers have slightly improved, the trio of Naveen ul Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqui, and Azmatullah Omarzai has only been able to secure nine wickets in four games—all of which came at a high cost per run. Coach Trott underlined the urgent need for the hitters to assume their responsibilities rather than relying excessively on the spinners’ abilities in light of the forthcoming vital match.
The problem is that only two or three spinners can play at a time. That’s significant since the other eight must participate in the game as well. Therefore, winning games is everyone’s responsibility rather than just the spinners’. There are batters who need to score runs and batsmen who need to chase down a total. According to Jonathan Trott remark from Cricbuzz.
Afghanistan suffered the most damage from dropped catches in the Kiwi encounter.
Concerns have been expressed about Afghanistan’s fielding abilities, which were notably clear in their previous match against New Zealand where they missed seven critical catches that unquestionably cost them the game. In the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, they had a very disappointing catch success rate.
Coach Jonathan Trott is however certain that his team will play better in the field against Pakistan.
When you win the toss and choose to bowl first, you want to put the opponent under strain. Dropped catches don’t help. With New Zealand, we had the chance to do that, and we took advantage of it. Therefore, there are things you could do better in addition to the things you’d like to change, and we’ll be working to change those things tomorrow.