“India is our home” - Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi downplays spat between Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq during IPL 2023

Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi has downplayed the much-hyped spat between Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq during the Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier this year. Describing India as “our home”, he said that the Afghan players get a lot of love from Indian fans.

Kohli and Naveen are in focus ahead of the 2023 World Cup clash between India and Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Wednesday. The two were involved in a heated exchange during the IPL 2023 clash between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

At a press conference ahead of the India-Afghanistan World Cup clash, Shahidi was asked about the Naveen-Kohli incident during IPL 2023.

"See, as you mentioned before also, like India is our home, it was our home, we played here and the people of India give a lot of love to Afghanistan people. And what happened in the ground, that aggression comes to every player, it's not about India and Afghanistan. So, it can come to everyone. So, this happened and still like if you see a lot of our players, we have idols from Indian team like Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid [sic],” he replied.

Shahidi also refused to read too much into Afghanistan batters’ struggles against Bangladesh’s spinners in their World Cup opener. He asserted that they play better spinners during their net sessions.

“Like, if you see Rashid, Nabi, Noor and Mujeeb, we play them every day. So, I think our team is far better in playing spin bowling. So that game you know we struggled but you can't say that you are not good enough on one game. That game is gone now and we know we can play spinners better and we will try to come back in next game in every department,” the Afghanistan skipper elaborated.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan claimed three wickets each as Bangladesh bowled out Afghanistan for 156 in Dharamsala.

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“We are hopeful that he delivers” - Shahidi on Rashid

While Afghanistan struggled with the bat, their star leg-spinner Rashid Khan also had a rare off day. The seasoned bowler went wicketless in nine overs conceding 48 runs. Shahidi, though, is not too worried and backed the canny spinner to deliver against India.

"See, Rashid is the best bowler in ODI and T20s, so whatever opposition is doing, we don't care about that, like how they play, 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," he said.

Rashid has claimed 172 wickets in 95 ODIs at an average of 19.81 and an economy rate of 4.22.