Afghanistan - First impressions.

[mastana]

It was Afghanistan's first international match and that too against India. And i am impressed with the way they play their cricket. They will improve a lot if they continue to play against big teams. Your views?

[yoda]

Very impressed with their fielding. Decent bowling too. Could do a lot better with top order batting though.

[vvvslaxman]

FIelding - Good Batting - bar 2 or 3 batsmen others are below average Bowling - Good enough for these kind of surfaces. I mean not overly below average compared to other teams. Bottomline: WHenever their batting comes off they can pull off an upset.

[h4te]

better than Pak and BD, although that's not really saying much.

[b555]

noor ali

[ViruRulez]

FIelding - Good Batting - bar 2 or 3 batsmen others are below average Bowling - Good enough for these kind of surfaces. I mean not overly below average compared to other teams. Bottomline: WHenever their batting comes off they can pull off an upset.

agree completely they can defeat the lower ranked test teams on their day .. they are decent team keeping in mind this was their debut in intl. standard cricket .. I would say they will get test status within 2012 if they keep playing like this

[hari504504]

Shapoordan and the leg spinner are excellent bowlers....Ver un-Asian fielding standards......their batting needs to get their act together and we have a very decent team...

[Laaloo]

Who was that left armer who beat the bat a couple of times? He impressed me quite a bit.

[panesarv]

Noor Ali looks very good and confident

[The Dark Horse]

first impression-these guys have a big build

[SJS50]

They have no clue whatsoever how to play the ball that swerves in the air. I have not seen even club players from the top club sides in Delhi or Bombay looking so out of sorts as these guys. Clearly they dont face this type of bowling in their own country. Then they have the other problem which shows the kind of wickets they bat on - a complete lack of knowledge as to how to play off the back foot. This is a problem one finds with many sub-continental batsmen, Pakistani openers over the last decade or so have been glaring examples. These are guys used to plonking their left foot (in the case of right handers) forward and driving at the ball. Again a function of the type of pitches they play on. In the sub-continent you can tell the class of a player by the way he plays off the backfoot. This is what separates the Tendulkars, Dravids and Inzamams from the Yuvraj's, , Nazeers and Farhats. The Afghan players take this incompetence to a completely different level. Due to the type of format, these deficiencies are exposed in only a limited way. Take them to the longer versions and they are completely exposed. Hence the so-called one day specialists which in most cases means players who are incompetent at Test level. The really top Test players are not incompetent at ODI level. This is also what separates Bangladesh from other Test sides. Teams like Afghanistan are only worse. It is sad that no one, including coaches, seems to concerned about it. Maybe because these teams end up playing 90 percent of the time in the shorter version, no one cares but dont expect them to reach higher standards in any near future if these are not corrected. PS: When I talk of not being able to play off the backfoot, I am not refering to facing medium paced stuff and/or long hops. These can be tackled by any Tom, Dick or Harbhajan as well.

[Aaku]

Good show ! Couple of batmen really impressive :D Young team, but did nicely in all departments !:two_thumbs_up:

[veer]

fielding was excellent?? they misfielded 2 or 3 easy..

[hari504504]

Who was that left armer who beat the bat a couple of times? He impressed me quite a bit.

Shapoordan..fairly quick and bouncy..one can imagine the damage he can cause on a pitch like Perth or Kingsmead

[hari504504]

first impression-these guys have a big build

Central Asian gene pool..

[Lord]

good impression first up,T20 is not always great to judge,but they looked good

[Alam_dar]

They are Pakistan C or D Team at moment, but they have the Talent and Will to become on of the best in cricket field. One things one should note that these lads had very STRONG build. I thing their build is the best among all Cricket playing Nations. Sooner or later they will be challenging big teams too.

[vvvslaxman]

today's top searches in cricinfo Popular: Afghanistan | Sachin Tendulkar | MS Dhoni | World T20

[Zero_Unit]

well they came with a lot of heart in the tournament ...

[Crookbond]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/current/story/584051.html

"Perhaps our most significant decision [taken at the meeting] has been to substantiate the claim of Afghanistan to be an Associate member of the ICC," ACC chief executive, Ashraf-ul-Haq said in Lahore on Tuesday. "Afghanistan has been the strongest side among the Affiliate members, so we are backing them for the promotion." The ACC has already informed the ICC of their support for Afghanistan, but the request will be looked into only in June 2013, at the ICC's annual conference. "The applications are in order and we are hoping that at the next ICC annual meeting Afghanistan will be given the status they deserve," Haq said.