ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2022

October 27, 2022

Raees Ahmadzai

Melbourne Cricket Ground

Afghanistan

Pre Match Media Conference

Q. Now the tournament has reached a stage where group one is wide open. And after the washout and all that thing. What are your thoughts about what's been discussed in the camp because there's a prediction for rain tomorrow. So it's only going to get tougher from here.

RAEES AHMADZAI: (Indiscernible) To be honest, we're here to play matches. And we don't like the matches to be washed out. And this will help a lot for our cricket, for our players. And we want to show our players' skills to the international cricket.

And, yes, it was like disappointed yesterday the match was not (indiscernible). And we were ready for any match against any team.

Q. What I meant was, now, going forward, like all the teams are evenly played. It gets tougher from here. What's the strategy going forward? You have a defeat then don't have a match. It's only going to get tougher for you from here.

RAEES AHMADZAI: I think everyone was talking about our group. The group is very tough. But as I mentioned before, we want to play cricket. We want to face any team. It's a good opportunity for our players to play against a top-level team, especially we want to play -- when we played the first match of the World Cup against England and it was like we played after six years against England.

And against New Zealand almost the same years or maybe against Australia. So we want cricket. And what we will see, I think, our group will be like it's become more complicated. Some matches will be washed out, like, hope we can play tomorrow. But the (indiscernible) will not be easy for any team in this group.

Q. Tomorrow you have a match against Ireland. Ireland has emerged as a strong team, against England they've played very well. They won the match. And yesterday they have bowled (indiscernible) -- the pace boulders from Ireland. But Afghanistan's main thing has been bowling. Do you think tomorrow with spin bowling, Mujeeb or Rashid, they will play a vital role for Afghanistan?

RAEES AHMADZAI: Yes, definitely, I think we are very likely to have such good spinners and the spinners, they can bowl in any kind of pitches. They're playing everywhere around in the world with different franchises. So they have enough experience.

And I think Melbourne wicket, MCG wicket will be more ideal for our spinners the way we saw yesterday like (indiscernible) bowl or Livingston bowl, gets three wickets. So it gives more confidence to our spinners.

But again our spinner is ready for any kind of pitches. And we are happy to face against Ireland. And this will be a good team, a good match. Yes, Ireland beat England, but we are ready to play good cricket against Ireland.

Q. (Indiscernible) the tournament very nicely. But after some time you have lost the matches and you are not in a position to come to the final. So tomorrow your match against Ireland and after you have more matches. Do you think and the energy problem of the players or they get some laziness after the hard competition? Is it something in the team?

RAEES AHMADZAI: No, we're really (indiscernible). And one thing is that we are fighters. We love to fight and we want to be very aggressive on the ground. And that's our nature.

We're not lazy. Yes, we start really well in the Asia Cup, but unluckily the way Sri Lanka chased (indiscernible) it was like against our bowling department. I think the credit goes to the Sri Lankan side. They played very well to chase 176.

But it does not mean that we'll go after a few matches our boys will be tired or it will be something like to be feel lazy. But all the time, our players want to play cricket and we will go something very special in this tournament.

As I mentioned before, the tournament, the round, the group stage is still open. We win tomorrow, so it will be very interesting.

Q. (Indiscernible) spoke about the fact that it's easy to play cricket and you don't like greens, and quite naturally. For teams like Afghanistan, Ireland, the young teams who don't get too much of an opportunity to play the big, big teams on a regular basis, what do these tournaments mean when they get rained out or there's too much of -- the play doesn't happen, how much of an opportunity does the players miss out?

RAEES AHMADZAI: I think as I mentioned before, it's a good opportunity to play against top level teams in Australia. The condition is totally different from the Asian condition. So everyone is very excited. And the way I feel yesterday, some of the boys was really upset because of the rain.

So that means, that's showing that our players want to play cricket. And for teams like Afghanistan and Ireland, they deserve to play more matches against the top nations.

Like we played the last T20 match against England in 2016. And now it's 2022. Almost six years. It's not enough opportunity for the young teams and how they will be developed and how they will be -- have a competition with each other.

So if you play more matches against top level teams, I'm sure Afghanistan team have that ability to beat any team or in any condition or anywhere.