Under 19 Asia Cup 2018: Afghanistan captain Rahmanullah Gurbaz confident of defending the title

The U-19 Asia Cup 2018 is all set to be played in Bangladesh from 29 September. Ahead of the tournament, Afghanistan captain Rahmanullah Gurbaz, in an exclusive interview to Sportskeeda, said that they are confident enough to defend the title.

"We have a good preparation for the Asia Cup. We started getting prepared for this tournament three-four months ago. All of our boys are ready to play the Asia Cup. We hope that we will be able to be the champions of Asia again. We are highly confident to win (this edition of U-19 Asia Cup). Our boys have been working hard to make this tournament memorable," Rahmanullah said during a practice session on Friday at National Cricket Academy, Mirpur.

Afghanistan won their first major cricketing event last year when they beat Pakistan in the 2017 U-19 Asia Cup. They outplayed Pakistan by 185 runs in that match and that triumph of Afghanistan made them more optimistic in the age-level cricket. And, that is the behind the confidence of Afghan captain.

Unlike the other age-level cricketers of other Asian Test-playing nations, Afghanistani youngsters get least facilities from their board. For the unstable political situation in the country, Afghanistan enforced to continue their preparation camp in India. But, Rahmanullah Gurbaz sounded good about talking about the facilities that they get from their board.

"Getting world-class facility is very important for growing up to represent the nation. If you have no facilities, you won't be able to be a good cricketer, and you won't be prepared well to play for the nation. We are happy to have the best possible facilities by our board and management," he added.

Afghanistan have four-five cricketers in their squad who have played the first-class cricket including captain Rahmanullah.

"All of the departments in our team are strong. We have good spinners and pace bowlers; bowling is our strength. We have Kayes Ahmed, a leg-break bowler, who has the ability to make an impact in the tournament." Afghanistan concluded.

Four matches will take the field on the opening day of the tournament, while in Chittagong Bangladesh and Pakistan will take on Sri Lanka and Hong Kong respectively, and in Dhaka, Nepal and Afghanistan will take on India and UAE respectively.