If they don't start preparation immediately then Afghanistan will not qualify for the upcoming World Cup: Former Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan

Afghanistan suffered a frustrating defeat against Australia in their last T20 World Cup 2022 clash on Friday (November 4) at the Adelaide Oval. Afghanistan were already ruled out of the race for the semi-final spot after failing to win any games from their opening four Super 12 Group 1 fixtures and a loss at the hands of Australia meant that their World Cup campaign ended without a single win.

Australia posted a challenging 169-run target while batting first at the Adelaide Oval with pacers Naveen-ul-Haq taking three and Fazalhaq Farooqi grabbing two wickets. While chasing a big target, Afghanistan batters put up an admirable fight till the end but fell just four runs short of the target. Despite losing the game, the Afghan cricket team won many hearts for their efforts against the mighty Australian team.

Management should select 20-25 players but not make ten changes for each and every series: Asghar Afghan

Afghanistan team next travel to Sri Lanka for a three-match ODI series starting from November 25. They are also struggling in the qualification race for the 2023 ODI World Cup and are yet to face India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka for the same. Former Afghanistan skipper, Asghar Afghan also advised the team to start focusing on the upcoming World Cup immediately in the BatBricks7 Run Ki RunNeeti post-match show on CricTracker on Friday.

"This T20 World Cup is over for Afghanistan now but I want to point out one thing. Now Afghanistan have ODI fixtures and the upcoming 2023 ODI World Cup qualification games, which is very important as the tournament is happening in Asia.

I request Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) to make a plan now and start working on it. They should select 20-25 players or 70-80 players but not make up to ten changes for each and every series. If they don't make a plan for now, then they will not perform well in the upcoming Asia Cup and World Cup tournaments. Now they have enough time for preparation but need a plan from now as Afghanistan will be facing big teams like India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Asghar also advised ACB to bring in new coaches who can travel to Afghanistan, instead of taking the entire squad to other nations for the preparation of big tournaments.

"The cricket board and top management should bring in good coaches who can travel to Afghanistan and should not be running behind the coach with the entire team. Afghanistan's fans love cricket so much and the situation in the country is all normal now. So if they don't start preparation immediately then Afghanistan will not qualify for the upcoming World Cup," Asghar added. 

Click here to know the T20 World Cup Points Table and T20 World Cup Schedule updates.