India vs Afghanistan, World Cup 2023: Captain Shahidi hopeful Rashid Khan will 'deliver' in the big game

Captain Hashmatullah Shahidi is hoping for leg-spin wizard Rashid Khan to come good against India as Afghanistan hope to cause an upset and beat hosts Men in Blue in their World Cup 2023 match on Wednesday. Afghanistan come into the match at the Arun Jaitley stadium in Delhi on the back of a six-wicket defeat to Bangladesh after they were bowled out for just 156 in Dharamsala on Saturday.

World Cup 2023: News | Schedule | Results | Points table

India meanwhile began their campaign with a six-wicket win over Australia in Chennai on Sunday.

For Afghanistan to bounce back and beat the mighty hosts in their own conditions, the 25-year-old Rashid, who has 172 wickets in 95 ODI matches, will have to produce a special performance. The leg-spinner, however, went wicketless in the Bangladesh match.

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“Rashid is the best bowler in ODI and T20s, so whatever the opposition is doing, we don’t care about that,” said Shahidi. “Like how they want to play Rashid, but for us the important thing is how he has planned against the opposition. So that matters for us.”

“He has the quality and whenever it’s his day, he can do anything against the opposition, so we are expecting and we are hopeful that he delivers in tomorrow’s game.”

Shahidi said that batters will also need to back the spinners to win games.

“I made a statement at the beginning that we will play good cricket as a batting side. We have a good spin bowling attack, but only one department can’t win you games,” Shahidi said on the eve of the match.

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“In the Bangladesh game, I know we didn’t do well batting, but as a team we have that belief that we can come back in the next game and throughout the tournament. So the belief is there and the talent is there and we will try to move on.”

Shahidi added that Afghanistan will not be putting extra pressure on themselves ahead of the match against tournament favourites and hosts India.

“When it’s the opposition’s home, there will be crowd pressure,” said Shahidi.

“Especially in India, there are a lot of expectations that the stadium will be packed but as a team our talks are like we have to make these things simple. We need to focus on our own game and try to deliver our own game.”