LONDON: Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib admits losing Mohammad Shahzadfor the rest of the World Cup is a major blow to his side’s hopes ofupsetting the odds in the tournament.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Shahzad was ruled out on Thursday after suffering arecurrence of a nagging knee injury.
Minnows Afghanistan have lost their first two matches and could ill affordto lose the popular opener ahead of their clash with New Zealand in Tauntonon Saturday.
“Obviously it’s a big loss for our side,” Naib told reporters on Friday.“Shahzad is a great player for Afghanistan. He did a lot. I’m also upsetfor him — the last two, three weeks he’s been struggling with his knee.
“He can’t move right. In the last two weeks, I checked with the doctor andphysio. I gave the time to him to recover. But unfortunately it’s bad luckfor Shahzad.”
Naib believes Shahzad’s energetic presence off the pitch will be missed asmuch as his play on it.
“Shahzad is very energetic. Also in the dressing room he’s very funny. Heentertains us every time. So we miss a lot of things from him,” he added.
Although Afghanistan have little chance of making the semi-finals of the10-team tournament after losing to holders Australia and Sri Lanka, Naibsaid his team wanted to show how far they have come since their World Cupdebut in 2015.
Four years ago, they lost five of their six matches, with their only wincoming against Scotland.
But Naib said they were a more mature and confident unit now, with thepotential to shock the more-established teams.
“It’s totally different now. The 2015 World Cup was our first forAfghanistan,” he said.
“We just thought it was a big honour for Afghanistan to participate inthese kinds of events. Now it’s totally changed everything.
“Now we improve day-by-day. So here we’re not just going to participate inthe World Cup. We’re here for doing something different and to show theworld Afghanistan is not like the 2015 team.
“I think you saw that in the first few games. Now Afghanistan, we aretotally different.
“We have world-class players in our side, world-class batsmen. We’re tryingto play our best cricket here.” -APP/AFP