Former Afghanistan head coach Lalchand Rajput reveals 'Virender Sehwag' of the team

Rajput feels that the team has good batsmen to contribute in the red-ball format.

View : 1.2K

2 Min Read

Lalchand Rajput
info
Former Indian team manager, Lalchand Rajput. (Photo Source: Twitter)

Afghanistan made their Test debut against India at M Chinnaswamy Stadium but things didn’t go well for the visitors as they succumbed to an innings defeat. Indian bowling attack was right on top against the Afghanistan batsmen – the main reason behind their collapse under 110 in both the innings.

Former Afghanistan head coach and former Indian cricketer Lalchand Rajput was asked on where it went wrong for Afghanistan. Rajput was quick to notice that the team has good spin attack but batting is where they have to focus in the coming days. With time on their side, Afghanistan can learn it and create the impact against Ireland in their next Test in 2019.

“Spin bowling has always been Afghanistan’s strength. The likes of Rashid Khan, Mohammed Nabi, or Mujeeb Ur Rehman have always done well in the shorter versions of the game and they really have some good spinners in the domestic ranks as well. However, they need to up the ante as far as the batting is concerned. Test Cricket is a different ball game altogether. Playing red-ball needs a lot of patience, and the proper judgement of off-stump, how to leave the ball wide outside of the off-stump. This is an art. They need to work on that aspects,” Rajput said to SportsCafe.

Afghanistan have good contributors with the bat

Rajput recalled Afghanistan’s performance against Ireland in Intercontinental Cup. Afghan team won that match by an innings and 172 runs, thanks to the contributions from Shahzad, Asghar Stanikzai and Afzar Zazai with the bat. Rajput feels that the team has good batsmen to contribute in the red-ball format and stated that their opener Mohammad Shahzad is the one who doesn’t take any pressure from the team management and termed him as Virender Sehwag.

“When Afghanistan played Ireland in Noida, I always kept on telling Asghar Stanikzai and Rahmat Shah to play long and they scored big hundreds as well. I used to leave Mohammad Shahzad alone because he is the entertainer just like Virender Sehwag. He also dominated. But other players like Stanikzai, and Rahmat, they need to bide time and play long innings for the team. That is very important.”

[interaction id=”5b20eba7ed4c53467d864631″]

Get every cricket updates! Follow Us:

googletelegraminstagramwhatsappyoutubethreadstwitter

Download Our App

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS and Google Play Store