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Aakash Chopra reckons the presence of several journeymen short-format cricketers has helped Afghanistan perform better than Pakistan in the 2024 T20 World Cup. He noted that the Afghans are similar to the West Indians in that regard.
Pakistan were knocked out of the ongoing T20 World Cup before the Super Eights. On the flip side, Afghanistan are perched atop Group C and have made it to the next stage with a game in hand.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra was asked why Afghanistan have fared better than Pakistan, even though they don't have a proper domestic structure, just like their neighbors.
"The thing that goes in favor of Afghanistan is that all of them play T20 cricket a lot. You can see (Mohammad) Nabi, (Rahmanullah) Gurbaz, Rashid (Khan), Noor (Ahmad), Fazal (Fazalhaq Farooqi), Naveen-ul-Haq and Azmatullah Omarzai. They have lots and lots of T20 cricketers," he replied (9:55).
"Gulbadin Naib was playing recently for Delhi (Capitals). All of them are proper T20 players. They play a lot of T20s in different, different places. So they have glimpses of West Indies, where people go and play in different, different places and then try to assemble and play together," the former India opener added.
The West Indies are the other team to qualify for the Super Eights from Group C. Rashid Khan and company will face the Windies in their final group game in Saint Lucia on Monday, June 17, to decide the table toppers.
"Everyone has the same interest and inclination" - Aakash Chopra on the difference between Afghanistan and the West Indies
Aakash Chopra pointed out an area where Afghanistan have an advantage over the West Indies.
"Unlike the West Indies, there are no leadership issues. Assembling everyone is never a problem as they come from one country and talk similarly. Everyone has the same interest and inclination. West Indies have players from different countries because it is a collection of countries," he said (10:25) in the same video.
The cricketer-turned-commentator added that regional differences don't hamper Afghanistan cricket.
"It's difficult to bring together a collection of countries. There are a lot of problems in the selection process. There is nothing like that here, and that's why Afghanistan cricket is doing well at least in T20s. In fact, they had the same unit in ODIs as well and that also did well," Chopra observed.
However, Chopra acknowledged that Afghanistan will remain behind in Test cricket since they don't have a robust first-class structure. On the flip side, he expects the Asian nation to perform decently in white-ball cricket till the current set of players continues to play.
