Rahmanullah Gurbaz has had a mixed T20 World Cup so far. This tournament has been either all or nothing for the Afghanistan opener. Whenever he has set his sights, he has played match-winning knocks for his team. As he did against Uganda (76) and New Zealand (80) in the group stage, but in the last two matches against Papua New Guinea and West Indies, he got out for 11 and a duck. But he is still Afghanistan's biggest weapon in the top order.
Now that the tournament has reached the Super Eight stage – this is the first time Afghanistan have reached the second round of a World Cup – Gurbaz will have more responsibility. And his first task will not be easy. On Wednesday, he will take on India in a Super Eight match in Barbados.
But Gurbaz is not at all perturbed by the prospect of facing Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya. He has promised that if the Indian pacers bowl in his half, he will hit it out of the park.
“Honestly, my target is not just Jasprit Bumrah. I will target all the (Indian) bowlers, there are five bowlers who usually bowl and I have to deal with them. It is just a battle against Bumrah. Maybe some other bowler can get me out. But yes, if I get a chance to hit him (Bumrah), I am ready for it. It can be Bumrah, Arshdeep or Siraj. If anyone bowls in my area, I will hit them. Either I will hit them or I will get out,” Gurbaz told ICC before the match.
Facing the Indian pacers is nothing new for the right-handed keeper-batsman. He has been playing in the IPL for the last two seasons and has found success opening the innings for Kolkata Knight Riders. Known for attacking bowlers in the powerplay, Gurbaz said Afghanistan is no longer satisfied with being a participant in the World Cup; they feel they can win it.
He said, “We have played in the World Cup before, but this time there is a lot of difference. Earlier our mindset was only to participate in the World Cup. But now our mindset is that we should go and become champions. There is no pressure on us to become champions. We do not have such expectations. But we are focusing on one match at a time. Our focus is on that and hopefully we will achieve our goals and first qualify for the semi-finals and then the finals.”
Afghanistan qualified for the Super Eight stage by defeating New Zealand, PNG and Uganda. They lost to table-toppers West Indies in their last group-stage game, but the Rashid Khan-led side has raised so much expectations in this tournament that every team is scared of them.
Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott said, “As you see in the IPL, many of our players have been playing T20 cricket around the world and now it's about uniting them as a team. I think in the past we have had some good individual players, but we need to unite all those players as a team and we have seen that many times in the group stage. So it's really exciting to go into tomorrow's game and you are on a fantastic ground like Barbados, which is well prepared against a team like India. It's an added bonus.”