The Afghanistan team suffered heartbreak in the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 as the team suffered an agonizing defeat by 2 runs against Sri Lanka which eventually led them to miss out on the Super 4 stage. In a crucial match held at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, Afghanistan found themselves in a must-win situation. They needed to successfully chase down a target of 292 runs within 37.1 overs in order to secure qualification, taking into account net run rate calculations.
But this defeat and poor show from the Afghanistan national side certainly raised a lot of questions in the minds of their fans as well as team management for taking some essential steps so that the team does not repeat the same mistakes in the upcoming ODI World Cup, which they did in Asia Cup 2023. The Hashmatullah Shahidi-led Afghanistan side have various areas where they need to work on if the team has to perform well in the upcoming marquee tournament. Let us look at three areas to improve for Afghanistan after their Asia Cup 2023 exit:
1. Middle-order woes
Similar to several teams in the international circuit nowadays the Afghanistan team also faces problems with the middle order. In the match against Sri Lanka the Afghanistan team promoted Gulbadin Naib at number three and played Najibullah Zadran at number 8, these changes certainly show that the team is still uncertain about the players which they actually want to play. Rahmat Shah who usually bats at number three showed glimpses of form in the recent match against Sri Lanka.
The likes of Shahidi, Rahmat, and Najibullah Zadran have to take responsibility for leading the way for the team to score big runs for the Afghanistan team.
2. Spin bowling not taking wickets in middle overs
The spin trio of Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Mohammad Nabi, and Rashid Khan have not managed to perform in a way that the team would have expected from them. The senior bowler in the team, Nabi failed to pick any wickets while the likes of Rashid and Mujeeb just managed to pick up just two wickets in the entire Asia Cup 2023.
This was one of the major reasons that affected the Afghanistan team as the team failed to pick wickets in the middle over courtesy of the spinners whom the team heavily depended upon.
3. Poor show from Fazalhaq Farooqi and new ball bowlers
One of the major issues that the team faced in the Asia Cup 2023 was bowling with the new ball. The likes of Fazalhaq Farooqi proved to be pretty expensive when it came to ball with the new ball. In both the matches that the Afghanistan team played in the Asia Cup 2023, the left-arm pacer failed to strike early as well as leaked runs.
In the match against Bangladesh, Farooqi finished with a bowling figure of 0/53 in just the six overs he bowled as well as in the last match against Sri Lanka the 22-year-old pacer registered a bowling figure of 0/52 in the seven overs that he bowled.