Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott on potential semi final spot if secure Bangladesh win

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Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott on potential semi final spot if secure Bangladesh win  23/06/2024  Arnos Vale Playing Field, Kingstown

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00:00Jonathan, congratulations. Just a couple of quick questions. First, how proud are you of your team?

00:07Second, do you think you have now put yourself in a position where you have your own fate in your own hands

00:14in regards to making it to the semi-finals?

00:18Yeah, it's a nice feeling to have that fact that we're playing the last game as well.

00:26You will know exactly what the scenario is and what's needed to win. That's always a nice feeling.

00:31But I think with cricket, so many things are thrown and so many results can go against you or for you.

00:41So we've just got to focus on our match against Bangladesh and when all the other matches are played

00:46we'll know what we need to do and the decisions we need to make.

00:51Jonathan, you've played a lot of cricket yourself against Australia and been around a long time.

00:57Have you seen an Australian team field that poorly before?

01:03No, I think everybody has days where they have an off day.

01:09But I don't necessarily want to comment too much on other teams and the way that they go about things.

01:16I thought the way that we fielded was really good in our match against Australia.

01:20Hopefully that can continue in our game against Bangladesh.

01:24We're going to need those standards and certainly on a venue like this with the type of pitch,

01:29games are going to be close and that's sometimes determined by the fielding.

01:32Rashid said at the toss that he would have elected to bat anyway had you won the toss.

01:39Did it play into your hands to be able to go out on that tricky wicket and set a total?

01:45No, I think the skill was the partnership that we had, the platform that we had.

01:50That enabled us to accelerate a little bit.

01:54I still don't think we batted all that well towards the end of the innings.

01:57We left a lot of runs out there and that's something we need to work on and get better at.

02:01Certainly when you have that type of platform you need to be able to capitalise with the amount of wickets in hand that we had.

02:06Looking forward to the Bangladesh game, that's going to be key and how we play that.

02:13It's always a nice thing having played at the venue on the same pitch that we're playing on against Bangladesh

02:18and having a little bit of knowledge.

02:24There will be a lot of talk about the history and the significance of this particular win in the bigger picture,

02:31but just in terms of how you outplayed Australia in different facets compared to what happened in Mumbai

02:38where maybe the nerves got the better of you.

02:41How do you compare the two?

02:44What happened in Mumbai to here and how impressed were you with the fact that just purely in cricketing terms

02:49you did outplay them at different facets?

02:52I was thinking about it now walking over actually, the difference between the two.

02:57We dropped Maxwell twice and Maxwell gave us, he played really well again,

03:04gave us one chance and Nurama took a fantastic catch.

03:08I think that's the difference, maybe the growth in the side, the realisation that it's not just about batting and bowling,

03:13it's all three facets of the game.

03:15Karim Jannat took a good catch, Matthew Wade, Gilbert Din took a good catch.

03:22Those sorts of things, and that's why we work so hard.

03:25I keep nagging the guys that they're so much better now.

03:31I think understanding what they can achieve and why we work so hard and what we're working towards.

03:36So that's the pleasing thing and I think when you have games like we had,

03:40the guys realise what they can achieve and why we do it.

03:46Jonathan, Afghanistan has now defeated every previous world champion except one, and that's India.

03:54Do you think they have now crossed that psychological barrier that stopped them from winning matches

04:01despite getting extremely close previously?

04:04How significant could this be psychologically for the Afghan team?

04:09I don't know, I think you need to have a consistent run of form to do that

04:13and beat the big teams consistently to say that you've cracked that.

04:16I'm not sure anybody's ever cracked this game, but I think every win like that

04:21or every good performance gives a little bit of confidence,

04:23but also the younger players coming through, they see what's needed to beat the major test-playing nations.

04:33But also close hands seeing the game, it's not a completely different game.

04:36It's good being able to see these players up close, the Cummins, Stark.

04:42They also bowl with the Kookaburra ball and the pitch is also 22 yards.

04:46It's not different for anybody and they can achieve these sorts of things.

04:52It's a realisation that they have the opportunity in front of them.

04:57It's all about going out there and taking it themselves

05:00and how they want to be as good individually but also as a team.

05:04Thank you, Jonathan.

05:05Thank you very much.

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