Afghanistan have returned from their inaugural apearance at the World Cup with one victory and a generally spirited showing, displaying some real strengths and then some weaknesses that need to be addressed.
After solid showings against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and a historic victory against Scotland, Afghanistan lost steam and couldn’t compete against the host nations of Australia and New Zealand. Maybe they could have done better against already eliminated England in the final match, but let’s not forget Afghanistan have been eliminated at that point already as well.
Afghanistan have shown they have a seriously good and even versatile attack in Hamid Hassan, Dawlat Zadran, Shapoor Zadran. These three will definitely be the core of the team in the years to come as Afghanistan try to build the other aspects of their game, most notably the batting.
Afghanistan’s batting failed them massively and they ended the tournament as the worst batting team. Afghanistan’s batting strike-rate of 60 was also the poorest in the tournament, indicating that the line-up was always under pressure as wickets fell regularly.
In order to improve further, Afghanistan will need to work on their batting and try to play the top opposition more often.
Afghanistan did not beat Sri Lanka.
Thank you, the error was corrected.