Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi downplayed the much-hyped on-field spat between Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq ahead of their second ICC ODI World Cup 2023 match. They are all set to take on India on Wednesday, October 11 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi in Match 9 of the tournament.
Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq were involved in a verbal spat during the Indian Premier League earlier this year. Since then, the Afghanistan pacer has been very vocal about the incident. The fans are awaiting an upcoming contest between the duo. However, Hashmatullah Shahidi expressed that India is their home, and they get a lot of love from the fans in the country. Speaking at the press conference, he said,
“See, as you mentioned before also, like India is our home, it was our home, we played here and the people of India give a lot of love to Afghanistan people. And what happened on the ground, that aggression comes to every player, it’s not about India and Afghanistan. So, it can come to everyone. So, this happened and still like if you see a lot of our players, we have idols from Indian teams like Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.”
Our team is far better at playing spin bowling: Hashmatullah Shahidi
Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi further spoke about the struggles of their batters against spinners in their recent World Cup match against Bangladesh. Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan took three wickets each in the match. Shahidi expressed that they are better at playing spin bowling as they face quality spinners in the nets. Speaking at the press conference, Hashmatullah Shahidi said,
“Like, if you see Rashid, Nabi, Noor and Mujeeb, we play them every day. So, I think our team is far better at playing spin bowling. So that game you know we struggled but you can’t say that you are not good enough in one game. That game is gone now and we know we can play spinners better and we will try to come back in the next game in every department.”
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