29 October - Pune - Afghanistan Captain Hashmatullah Shahidi pre-match press conference
[Reporter:]
Afghanistan is doing so well; they are on a roll. It is obviously a culmination of a lot of hard work. What do you attribute this success to?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
Yes, the team is doing good and we are all happy. I can say that we had a good tournament so far and looking forward for the other games also. It will be the best ever tournament for us in the World Cup history.
[Reporter:]
After that incredible win in Chennai against Pakistan, you had a 6-day break. Is it something that you preferred, a 6-day break, would that actually give you a good break or do you think the momentum that you had from that win, it will kind of taper off with this break?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
I think this break is good for us because we had back-to-back games before that and when you play too many games in short time, so the players get like tired. So that was a good - after a good win when you are having rest and think about other games also that give you time and also give rest for the bodies and I can say that was good for us.
[Reporter:]
You had a big win against Pakistan, Pakistan lost against Australia. Now the equation in the points table has changed and how do you look at your chances of going up especially with this game against Sri Lanka?
What is the position that you're looking at after, especially after the big teams losing?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
The table is like - we are thinking about the games one by one. We have game against Sri Lanka tomorrow, so we are thinking of that now. And our aim and goal is to achieve and to go to the next round. That's what we are thinking about.
But from now, we are not thinking - like from tomorrow's game, how to go to the semi-final. We think match by match and our mindset is busy in tomorrow's Sri Lankan game right now. So, let's see what happens tomorrow. Then we will think about other games and moving forward to the semi-final.
[Reporter:]
I just wanted to touch upon your batting. We saw that you played an aggressive knock against India and against Pakistan also you played close to a run a ball. So, is there an attempt from you and also Rahmat Shah to an extent to sort of evolve with the times and be more aggressive?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
See it's like sometimes when we have back-to-back wickets, so definitely put pressure when I am playing or other guy in the middle order is playing. So, when our team give us good momentum, so we try to take that momentum, move forward and we think about that. So, we will see how the situation is in the future games. Like, we want to play accordingly. Like, if it's early wickets, so we have to carry on with how to play all 50 overs. If it's good momentum, so we will try to maintain with that and try to play with a good strike rate.
[Reporter:]
Hi, can you just talk about the challenges of managing three quality spinners of three different kinds? How do you handle it as captain and should we expect all three of them tomorrow?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
I will not tell you that. Yeah, I plan according the opposition also - I see to opposition and also at the time that we need which kind of bowler, so I think about that and I give ball to the same guy. I will not tell anything more.
[Reporter:]
Chennai, you went in with a spin heavy attack and you've been here training for the past few days. So how do you assess the conditions?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
Like this condition is totally different with Chennai one. Here that we practice at the night time a lot of dew and the wicket is a bit skiddy type so we assess that and we know and we will try to take advantage from that practice sessions that we had. So, we will move forward with that. We will take that with us.
[Reporter:]
Afghanistan, they really performed well before this match. They already have winning mentality with winning matches. Sri Lanka also came here with, after winning two matches, their start is not good, lost three consecutive matches. How do you feel about that? You have had a lot of experience playing with Sri Lanka recently, you also had a series against Pakistan in Sri Lanka. Do you have a good challenge against Sri Lanka?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
Yeah, it will be a tough challenge for both the teams. First of all, we played a lot of cricket together from last one year and we know each other very well. And coming to the winning point that we also had a win our last game in India also. So, I'll tell about our team, we have more confidence of that game. So, we will take that with us to the ground and we will try to go with a positive intent to the ground and play good cricket.
[Reporter:]
We saw your young spinner really perform well in first game and last game. You have two more spinners, Rashid Khan and Mujeeb. But Sri Lanka has a problem because they have a key spinner couldn't get a chance to play due to injury. How do you look up to your spinning department, your spinner department and Sri Lanka spin department?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
I think they have a good team, good bowling and if you see our bowling is our strength also and we have good bowling attack, especially when it's come to the spinners. So definitely pressure will be on them because of our spinners.
[Reporter:]
And can you please tell us a bit more about the hard work that went behind the scene in shaping this team?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
Yeah, we worked on this team from last two years. Consistently, we were selecting the same team. We were struggling in some point of view, especially in death overs in fast bowling department. But we tried our best to give that place to someone who can do it for us.
And Naveen was not with us, so he joined the World Cup. We take him for the World Cup squad and he is doing well right now. On this team it's not started from World Cup. We were working on this team from last two years and we had series against teams like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh consistently. We were playing a lot of domestic 50 overs cricket and we stick with our plan; we stick with the same team. When we were not doing good, we still had a belief on this team and these players. We give them a lot of chances.
In our good time and in our bad times, we believed in this team now. That's the reason I think we are playing good cricket in the World Cup.
[Reporter:]
You have a world-class bowling attack. Your batting has also kind of come along pretty well in the last few matches.
Do you think this is the first time that Afghanistan kind of starts as a favourite against Sri Lanka? Is that sort of confidence in the team?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
I think, I believe on the day who play good cricket, you know, both the teams are good sides. You can say that both are the best teams. But when whoever play good cricket, positive cricket, it depends on the day. So, I will say that if we play well, we are the best team and if they play, they are the best team. So, we will try our best to play how we finished against Pakistan. We will take that with us and we will try to play from there and start positively and also positively.
[Reporter:]
Personally, your batting form, how do you kind of rate the progress?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
I think I did well in the last game and also against India, but I was struggling in some of the games against Bangladesh, England. But I talked with the coach Jonathan [Trott] about my batting and he gave me good idea. I can't share it here, but the one or two words that he told me that helped me a lot. And I will try to take that with me for the rest of the tournament also.
[Reporter:]
I think recently, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mohammad Nabi as well as Noor Ahmed, they had a chance to play with the Sri Lankan players during the LPL [Lanka Premier League] tournament and as well as they played so many cricketers with the Sri Lankan players. That is plus point for you because they knew what is the what their mistakes and always, they are what type of area they can perform. That is a plus point for you. How do you think about that?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
I think I mentioned before also we played a lot of cricket with Sri Lanka. Keep that LPL aside, we played a lot of ODIs like 9-10 matches. That's more than enough for each and every player. So only not the guys that you mentioned know about them. We all team know about them and their team know about us.