Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan hailed his team’s maiden T20I victory over Pakistan but said their front-line batters need to improve ahead of the 50-overs World Cup in India later this year.
Rashid and his teammates humbled a new-look Pakistan by six wickets in the opening T20I in Sharjah late on Friday.
They restricted the young Shdab Khan-led Pakistan side to 92/9 and chased down the target with 13 balls to spare. Mohammad Nabi made an unbeaten 38 in the low-scoring contest to go with his two wickets with the ball.
“It’s a pleasure to win as we’ve always lost against them, sometimes by small margins,” Rashid said after the victory. “We’re happy for the win and we hope to continue the momentum.”
It was not an easy chase though as Afghanistan slumped to 27/3 before Nabi rescued them.
Rashid said their top order needed to perform better in the ongoing series and maintain that form heading into the ODI World Cup in October-November. “We need to improve and be sharper not just for this series, but also as we get to the World Cup,” Rashid said.
“We need to put in the effort day by day and game by game so that by the end of the year when we go for the World Cup, we have a fully prepared squad.”
Brief scores: Pakistan 92/9 in 20 overs (M. Rahman 2/9, M. Nabi 2/12, F. Farooqi 2/13). Afghanistan 98/4 in 17.5 overs (M. Nabi 38 n.o.; Ihsanullah 2/17). Afghanistan won by 6 wickets.
