Asia Cup 2022: “They are not overawed by the likes of Virat Kohli” - Aakash Chopra on Afghanistan’s strengths in T20Is

Former Indian batter Aakash Chopra reckons that Afghanistan are a highly competitive side in T20Is because of their wealth of experience in the format. He pointed out that most of their big players, the likes of Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, are involved in various T20 leagues across the globe.

Afghanistan will be in action on Saturday (August 27) when they take on Sri Lanka in the opening encounter of the Asia Cup 2022.

Sharing his views ahead of the match, Chopra opened up on Afghanistan’s strong points as a T20I outfit. Speaking on his YouTube channel, he commented:

“One of their biggest strengths is that they have a lot of T20 experience. Be it Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz or even Mujeeb Ur Rahman, they are a T20 superstar team.

"So many of their players feature in T20 leagues across the globe. As such, there is no lack of experience when it comes to this format. They are not overawed by the likes of Virat Kohli. They bowl in proper areas even against top players. This is a specialty of the team.”

Rashid is part of the 'Platinum Category' for the Big Bash League (BBL) player draft, which will be held on August 28. Platinum players will be eligible to be selected in the first round of the BBL draft.

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“They lack experience of playing at the highest level” – Aakash Chopra on Afghanistan’s weakness

Looking at the flip side, Chopra explained that that Afghanistan struggle as a team because they do not get to play a lot against top sides. Analyzing the team’s weak points, he said:

“They lack experience of playing at the highest level. They don’t get to play much against the big teams. They have recently played Bangladesh, Ireland and Zimbabwe. Because of lack of experience against big sides, they don’t know how to control the big moments when they come up against India and Pakistan.

“They are not able to absorb the pressure. They compete for most part, but then just lose the plot. They need to play more matches against good sides.”

Afghanistan's most recent international assignment was a five-match T20I series in Ireland earlier this month. They ended up losing the hard-fought series by a 2-3 margin.