Rashid Khan has always been sensitive to the difficulties faced by the Afghan people. He was in the UK performing in the Hundred at the time of the Taliban takeover, and all he wanted was “peace.” He hoped that the public would find some solace in their defeat of the men’s ODI World Champions England in the wake of earthquakes that had caused enormous devastation.
Back home, there would be a tremendous celebration, he told Star Sports. “Back home in Afghanistan, we don’t have that sort of victory and that kind of circumstance where people might celebrate. I believe that the only thing that brings them joy and happy memories is cricket, while everyone back home merely waits. The amount of support we receive…and how thrilled they are for us to be competing at that level…despite the fact that we have lost so many games, Rashid stated following the game.
It was important for us to defeat England; our supporters back home will be really happy. Recently, there was an earthquake in our country that resulted in more than 3,000 fatalities and the destruction of almost 2,000 homes. They will be able to smile a little bit and temporarily forget their problems, thanks to this success.
Afghanistan has won just once in 17 attempts at the World Cup, defeating Scotland in the 2015 tournament. The Afghanistan spin trio of Rashid, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, and Mohammad Nabi, however, worked their magic as England lost by 69 runs in Delhi, their second defeat in three games, despite having amassed their second-highest score at this tournament.
Ashid was extremely important to the victory, both with the bat and the ball. As Afghanistan scored 284 in 49.5 overs, he first made an important 23-ball 22 moving further down the order to halt a decline. He then followed it up with a three-wicket haul, leading his team to the competition’s biggest upset.
“Playing against a powerful team like England always gives you a massive lift. At the Asia Cup and the series against Pakistan, we had some extremely challenging opponents, he remarked.
Although we came extremely close to winning those games, the players were disappointed because, despite their best efforts, they ultimately came out on the losing end. They weren’t receiving the proper amount of energizing and boosting. We’ll have a lot of energy after this victory to compete well the rest of the way. We now have confidence that we can defeat any opponent at any time.
