Hashmatullah Shahidi speaks ahead of New Zealand v Afghanistan

Hashmatullah Shahidi speaks ahead of New Zealand v Afghanistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.

[Reporter]

Mr. Shahidi. I will ask the question in Pashto. I am from BBC Afghan service. You will be entering with high morale for tomorrow's match, will the last match with the English team have an effect on you?

[Hashmatullah Shahidi]

Absolutely. When you win a match, it helps a lot for the next match. You stay with a lot of confidence. Especially England, which was the defending champion, which we defeated. We had believed and still, we believe, like till now we had five and six matches remaining, so If God wishes we will do our best, no matter whom we will play, we go with high morale, and we go from hotel or room to the ground with winning intention.

[Reporter]

Apparently. This wicket also seems favourable to the spin and will help, and you have that bowler Ikram Alikhil who was very good in the last match.

[Hashmatullah Shahidi]

Absolutely. First, I will tell you about the ground. The information we have, and the matches we saw, and especially two years ago we had camped here, so these pitches are very helpful for spinners, look favourable for spinners, so for tomorrow also we have the expectations, If the pitch is well prepared for the spinners so that we benefit more. And the other thing about Ikram, Ikram was part of our team for two years. He was a 12th man, or was supporting the team, so he was being patient and made his effort, and we trusted him in that big match, I trusted him and brought him to that match, and he proved himself and being patient he was, he proved himself on that big day. And we expect him that he keeps his form for the next matches the same way.

[Reporter]

The last question. On the same ground New Zealand has played many matches, they had a match with Bangladesh, and they won the match. They are here for many days. Aren’t you worried in this aspect?

[Hashmatullah Shahidi] This is not in our hand, teams stay here, one team play one match other play two matches, and all this is arranged by ICC. We are not worried about this. We look at ourselves that as a team what good we can do and what is beneficial for us. We think more about this.

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