6 October - Dharamsala - Afghanistan Captain Hashmatullah Shahidi pre-match press conference
[Reporter:]
The last time you met Bangladesh, it was a kind of one-sided affair in the Asia Cup, but you have had success against them previously. What are your thoughts about tomorrow's match?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
As you said, we played a lot with each other. Sometimes we won, sometimes they won. In Asia Cup, they beat us in the last game that we played with them - but we are totally ready here and we have had meetings, we prepare ourselves and we know them very well so we will play accordingly and we will try our best as a team to bounce back in this game against them.
[Reporter:]
What are the things you want to do differently than the previous match when you lost?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
Nothing special. It's simple, we will have to be focused on our strength. What is our strength and what is their weakness. What happened in the last game, we have to learn from that game. They were better than us, so we will learn from them and we will try to implement those things tomorrow and we will try to be positive.
[Reporter:]
Ajay Jadeja is the new mentor for your team. So how will you benefit from this in this World Cup?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
See he played a lot for India, he has the experience and also, he knows about the conditions in India. From the first day that he is with us we are talking with him. He is a very positive person and is always talking positive things to improve our team. We will get the advantage of that and we are trying to get the advantage of every talk that he gives to the team. And it will help us throughout the tournament.
[Reporter:]
It's been 4 years since the 2019 World Cup, but you still have players playing in the tournament who played in the World Cup, like you, Shakib and many other senior players. Does it make a difference that you didn't win a single match? Do you think you have to do better than that?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
No that’s history, it’s gone. Its four years now. We are thinking about now – with this team we have worked very hard since two - three years. So, a lot of youngsters are in the team compared to other World Cups and also, we are thinking about now, past is gone now, so we will try to be positive and play positively here in this World Cup. And tomorrow is our first game, so we will try our best to start well from tomorrow.
[Reporter:]
inaudible question
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
It looks different to other grounds in India. As we know, as per our experience, and we saw the games here in Dharamshala, it will be a little bit bouncy and little bit seam friendly. So, we know that and we will adjust ourselves to that. We have that in our mind and we will try our best to play according to the situation and the conditions that we have here.
[Reporter:]
Whenever Afghanistan play against Bangladesh, there is a battle between the Afghanistan bowlers and Bangladesh's opening batsmen. So, this time, there is a new batter called Tanzid Hasan Tamim - Do you have any specific plan against him?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
See, I mentioned this before as well in meetings, the same question. We are playing against Bangladesh tomorrow. So, we have plan for each individual and we are planning against all of them like we know the strength of every player we know the weakness of them - through videos. There is not any specific player to be targeted, and we will play their 11 players and we will have to play well against all of the team.
[Reporter:]
Do you think your opening bowers can be a big part of this match?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
It depends how they bowl tomorrow but we have a good bowling attack, we have good fast bowlers and good spinning options. So, let's see what they do tomorrow
[Reporter:]
How will you benefit from the IPL players? And second question, when Afghanistan plays a big tournament like this, it is a pressure. What will be the solution for this?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
As you know that our players played a lot in IPL and also other players who didn't play IPL, we also played in these conditions because India was our home. So, we know about the conditions and we will take that advantage with us throughout the tournament.
The second one was about big tournaments. I think our mindset is different now and as a team and as a leader I am very confident this time in this World Cup. We will achieve a lot and that's what our aim and target is. We will try our best to play positive cricket and don't worry about what happened in the past. So, we will try to give our best here. And again, I will say as a leader, I am very confident because our team is better than before in other tournaments. It was good, but now this time it's better. I feel that. We will try our best to give positive results and make it historic for our country’s people.
[Reporter:]
We all know that India has been the home virtual home for Afghanistan cricket for a long, long time. And you practice near Greater Noida the whole team, and they get another stadium, and so many other things. So, I mean, things have become more difficult these days. Recently, we have seen that even Afghan embassy has been closed in Delhi. So, in the future, will it affect the team? What do you think? Things are getting difficult day by day.
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
If you ask me about tomorrow's game and cricket, that will be better. I can't answer this kind of question. Sorry for that.
[Reporter:]
Can you please elaborate how you gave license to Rahmanullah Gurbaz? Does he get free license to hit every ball?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
No, it's not like that. From our coaching staff, me, it's license to every player. But Gurbaz is a very talented guy. He has more shots. Whenever I'm talking to him, I talk positively and I tell him to play your own way, whatever your strength is, play that way and just one thing I always mention to him is that you are very talented and you are one of the best players in the team, so you have to take responsibility and score as much as you can for the team.
[Reporter:]
I really don't know how you're going to take this question, but there is late drama in Bangladesh team selection and no Tamim Iqbal in the team. So, is that a relief for you?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
See I said before also that we are playing against Bangladesh not individual players so our focus now is on the rest of the players who are also talented, so we have to be focused on tomorrow's players who we are playing against. So, our focus is on that and we will try our best to play positive cricket against them in tomorrow's game.
