Good morning, good morning, morning,
morning, everyone. Pretty much press conference here with Afghanistan coach
Jonathan Trump.
Raise your hand if you have any questions.
Got the microphone
here. Start away. Hi, Trot.
Morning. So,
so going back to the England game,
we saw your spinners, Rashid and Mujeeb making quite an
impact.
Are we ready?
Yeah. So as I was saying,
yeah, the spinners made quite an impact in that game.
And now you're in Chennai,
where the track is considered a spinner's den.
Also, you have been here and practicing for nearly a
week now.
So how confident are you that your spinners can pull
off another upset against the Pakistan?
Thing is with spinners only two or three of them
playing a game and it's the other eight as well
that have to play the game.
So that's important.
So it's everybody's job. It's not just the spinners job
to win games.
There's batsmen who've got to put runs on the board
or batsmen who've got to chase down a total.
So yes, the spinners are important and getting our selection
is is key for the the
for the fixture, but it's it's a team effort.
It's not there's no reliance on just spinners.
They seem bowlers as well.
They've got a bowl well and
and ball wallet in whatever conditions we confronted with.
Yeah,
how was the wicket like?
Will it be aspinos for both sides?
And you'll see most of teams have been talking about
sorting out Rashid Khan.
I mean, you know the last few punch,
you got only one wicket now.
So how is it like,
you know, as a mental mindset for this game?
Sorry, you've asked a few questions here.
Let me ask the first one,
the the pitch. Obviously I'm not sure
Chennai is normally a good wicket.
So with regards to the mindset,
it's important. As I said,
the mindset we have there is that it's a team
game,
it's not just a spinners game,
the play the seamers and this fielders as well.
So everybody's got to put in a good team performance
if we want to beat the likes of a strong
side like Pakistan.
But we've had a AODI series against them recently where
where we
where we should have won a few games,
we didn't. So hopefully we can put that right tomorrow
night.
Hi John, You spoke about playing recent series against Pakistan
and and Asmath has also played a bit of PSL,
so I believe he's played with Peshawar and Ababa's captaincy.
So how much of that Intel would sort of help
you into this game?
It's not just the people have played with,
it's it's the whole team's
responsibility. Every time we play against an opposition to to
have a look and see what areas they are or
how we going to get them out in the future.
If we face bowlers, you know,
how are we going to be able to score runs
against him or play against him in the future.
It's not just one player,
perhaps he's got a bit of inside info,
he's practiced with them or or sort of spent a
bit of time off the field.
I think it's responsibility everyone and us as coaches as
well
to come up with plans to to execute tomorrow night.
Coach, you think this must win game for Afghanistan,
fifth match, having lost the
lost three out of four.
Every game is a must win game,
man. That's the world.
This is a World Cup and
you know every game is important.
So I don't see
the the other match is just as more important as
this.
This is obviously there's a bit of rivalry as well
with this with this game.
So I'm guarantee you you know my side's very very
excited and
you know looking forward to hopefully you know pulling away
when
and nothing before this World Cup
Pakistan Cricket Board requested ICC to shift the venue of
Pakistan Afghanistan match. Do you think this is weakling for
Pakistan that
they are fear about spin bowling of Afghanistan.
Well I didn't know about that but
as in I didn't know about the morning.
I'm not sure about changing the venue.
I have no idea about that.
But I think you know Pakistan have got good spinners
themselves.
So it's. I don't again it's not a case of
the spinners for me.
It's a case of everyone doing their job.
You know when the balls in the air catching it
with the balls in the ground fielding it And
when you're batting when you got your bat in your
hand making sure that you,
you know representing the side well and doing what the
team needs you to do.
And that's it at that situation.
Nigel Hakyasini from BBC Afghan
last match as much took two wickets in one hour.
But coming to Pakistan and Afghanistan,
both the team have lost.
Pakistan lost two and Afghanistan lost one in lost two
matches both will be trying to get points.
So it is a big challenge do we think and
what would what what you have learned from the failures
of last match.
The fielding 7 catch dropped,
betting collapsed. So you must have come with a new
plan for this match.
So what what were you saying about Asmat?
Asmat. Asmat took very two wickets.
Yeah, one hour. So people were thinking that spin will
be
shining in this match. But
the fast bowler were good too.
That's what I'm saying. So it's not just about the
spinners.
Everyone's got to bowl well,
yeah, and obviously you drop catches don't help,
especially when you you win the tossing bowl first.
You want to put the opposition under pressure.
We had opportunity to do that with New Zealand and
we had him,
he was about 115 for four as well at one
stage,
you know, and let them get away.
So obviously the things you'd like to do differently,
there's things you could do better
and we'll be looking tomorrow to to do that.
Coach, you spoke about the rivalry between that exists in
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Like you've been with Afghanistan for a while.
Could you just talking to the players,
What does it feel like for this rivalry?
Like, could you just explain words like what does it
mean for Afghanistan players about this New
Year's rivalry? I think for them
it's
a a rivalry that excites them.
I think it's a rivalry that sometimes in the past
has been very passionate and we've seen Asia Cup clashes
and and and matches
that have been very exciting.
You know, no, no closer than the T20,
the T20 Asia Cup last year where it went down
with where Pakistan won by 1 wicket.
So we've had very close games as well.
So they've been very good,
very interesting and exciting games.
Hopefully tomorrow isn't very exciting and we won by a
lot,
by a lot, but I'm sure we'll see an exciting
game tomorrow.
It's just the nature of
and the nature of the rivalry I should say.
And both teams I think respect each other but are
very desperate to win,
so I'm looking forward to
it. Jonathan, the two games where you're batting clicked,
you were batting first. Is there a sense of freedom
when you're setting a target rather than chasing?
And considering the quality of bowling attack,
not only the spinners, even the pieces have been fairly
good.
So would you prefer to put a total irrespective of
take a due and things out of the equation and
just focus on putting a runs on board and then
use age-old one day cricket
going back to the nineties,
2000s. Put runs on board and then restrict the opposition
on a pitch where it could become slow and your
spinners are probably the one of the best in the
world.
Yeah I think it's you know it's it's a valid
point.
I think
as you've seen throughout the World Cup you know winning
the toss doesn't necessarily mean that you know you've got
an advantage in the game.
So it's about making sure whatever you do first you
put the opposition under pressure,
whatever you do first, you know.
So whether it if you're bowling first you make sure
you take your catches and you ball accurately and you
you restrict them to a total you can chase
irrespective of, you know, the pitch of the Jew factors
that come in.
So
we've got to play cricket well from the start.
It's nothing to do with
batting or bowling first. We've got to be better at
the start and we we we saw against England we
were good at the start and we managed to get
a victory Against New Zealand we we weren't that great
and we put ourselves under pressure.
So tomorrow hopefully that's that turns around again
hi
Pakistan is coming to this match with two back-to-back defeats
and both the defeats for
heaviest margins. So do you think Afghanistan can exploit this
situation for Pakistan and you know
come harsh against them in this match.
Well we always look to put up put the opposition
under pressure straight away so we'll be looking to do
that tomorrow obviously.
So I don't think there's any
any thoughts with regards to their previous matches.
I think when Afghanistan plays
Pakistan, I think there's you know that
a lot of form doesn't come into the game.
It's there's a lot of other things that come into
the game with regards to
the rivalry and the the history of and the passion
of everything.
So we know the Pakistan team would be very determined
to win tomorrow
and and certainly want to sort of snap that losing
streak of the two games that you just mentioned.
But again, we want to win just as much as
they do,
so that should be good.
Well, good. Thank you.