Harbhajan Singh says “Cannot take Afghanistan lightly, they are a mature team” in T20 World Cup 2021. Harbhajan believes that India cannot take Afghanistan lightly at any cost. According to him, Mohammad Nabi-led’s side is a very good team with a lethal spin combination. Also, India needs to beat Afghanistan by a massive margin. It is to keep their faint hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals. And then Indians are precariously placed. They had gone down to Pakistan by 10 wickets and New Zealand by eight wickets. On Wednesday’s clash in Abu Dhabi, Harbhajan admitted to Sportskeeda that Afghanistan is a potential threat to India.
“You cannot take Afghanistan lightly, they are a very good and mature team. They have decent batters and their spin duo of Mujeeb Ur Rahman-Rashid Khan is a lethal combination. This format is such that, till the end, you cannot predict which team will win or lose. The team that is ahead after the first six overs is likely to have the advantage. The chances of making a comeback become very slim after that,” Harbhajan Singh said.
Harbhajan Singh
Additionally, India is yet to register a victory in the T20 World Cup 2021. Also, Afghanistan has two wins from three games. They gave a tough fight to Pakistan before Asif Ali’s excellence scuttled their challenge. Both India and Afghanistan have met five times out of which the former has won four games. While one match tied and Afghanistan gave India a tough fight in the 2019 World Cup clash. It needed a hat-trick from Mohammed Shami to lift India to victory.
“Lastly, as a cricketer, I don’t believe in past records. I find stats useless. What has happened before, we cannot assume that it will happen again. If that was the case, we beat Pakistan 12 times, and we should have won the 13th time as well. We cannot change the past. What matters is how we play in the present. We had beaten them earlier but that Afghanistan team was in the making, now they are ready. That’s a big difference. This Afghanistan team is capable of defeating big sides,” Harbhajan Singh said.
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