AFG vs WI | We did not have enough experience in the middle, admits Rashid Khan
Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan has admitted that experience in the team is a must to excel in the longest format of the game as they given away the great starts they had in the first innings. Rashid has also called for a change in their domestic setup to promote first-class cricket ahead of T20s.
Afghanistan were brutally hammered in the tour against West Indies in Lucknow as they were flattened by the Caribbeans as the tour ended with a one a nine-wicket loss to the Windies in the one-off Test. Afghanistan have managed to play only four Test matches since attaining Test status back in 2017, winning and losing a couple each.
Having put to bat first in the match, Afghanistan failed to put up a competitive total even after some of their batsmen got off to great starts. Skipper Rashid Khan has admitted that lack of experience in the format was the reason the Afghans failed to capitalise on the starts.
“This is just a beginning in Test cricket for us and we will struggle. We have struggled in the ODIs as well. We had the best opportunity in the first innings, to score some runs and put them under pressure. We did not have enough experience in the middle. We got the starts and early partnerships but slowed down after that. In this format, if you let yourself down against an opposition like the West Indies, they won’t let you get up again. That’s what happened to us,” Rashid told Sportstar.
“If you don’t score big runs against top teams, you will struggle no matter what you do. We did not have enough runs in the first innings, which allowed them to play freely and get the lead. We made the same mistakes in the second innings,” he said.
Afghanistan has seen quite a monumental growth in their performances in the limited-overs formats and Rashid believes that to replicate it in Tests, the domestic setup needs a renovation. He admitted that T20 has to step out of the limelight in the domestic set-up to give first-class cricket the centre stage for it to flourish as he added that international experience in the longest format will be valuable.
“Practice makes man perfect and the more you practise in Test cricket, the better you get. If we play them again in Test cricket in a short time, we will know what are the right things to do. That’s what we are hoping for. Now, you play one Test a year, that kind of takes the momentum away. It’s tough for us to get more Tests against big teams, but we are trying to get as many as we can,” Rashid shared.
“We need to work a lot on our first-class cricket. It is struggling there. The quality there is not as good as it should be in a Test nation. Once we get the quality, the first-class structure in place, it will be easy for us to get used to the longer format. We should focus more on longer formats and 50-over games back home. We are famous for T20s; people love T20s back home, but we are struggling in the long format. We need to make first-class cricket more competitive and tougher than domestic cricket.”
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