Afghanistan cricket team has been on a roll in the ongoing T20 World cup 2024 as they have won four out of their six games making history in the process by defeating New Zealand and Australia for the first time in international cricket.
The T20 World Cup has also proved fruitful for the Afghani cricketers including Rashid Khan, Gulbadin Naib, veteran all-rounder Mohammad Nabi and Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Nabi has 96 T20I wickets in 127 matches and Fazalhaq has taken 96 wickets in 72 T20Is and ODIs combined, the two bowlers are nearing to achieve the 100-wicket mark as they will face Bangladesh next in the Super 8.
Afghanistan played against New Zealand, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Uganda and West Indies in the group stage of the T20 World Cup, losing only against the home side in their last group game.
Fazalhaq took five wickets for nine runs against Uganda and won the Player of the Match award for his spell. He continued his wicket-taking streak against New Zealand as he bagged four wickets for 17 runs defeating the Kiwis in the process. Against PNG he took another three-wicket haul for 16 runs and went wicket-less against the West Indies.
He took his form with him into the Super 8 game against India and removed their captain Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja but Afghanistan lost the game. Fazalhaq again went wicket-less against Australia.
As for Nabi, he failed to pick up a wicket against Uganda but contributed with the ball against New Zealand as he took two wickets in the match. For the next three games against PNG, West Indies and India, Nabi remained wicket-less but against Australia he took the all-important wicket of David Warner.
Despite the brilliant performances, Afghanistan’s qualification for the semi-finals depend on them winning against Bangladesh tomorrow and then hope India win against Australia but if the Kangaroos win against India, then Afghanistan needs to beat Bangladesh by a huge margin to improve their net run rate.
