Afghanistan’s head coach Jonathan Trott opens up on sandy outfield in Dharamshala
“We are lucky Mujeeb hasn't got a serious knee injury towards the end,” he said
Former England middle-order batter and current head coach of the Afghanistan cricket team, Jonathan Trott, raised some serious concerns over the state of the outfield at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala.
Afghanistan and Bangladesh began their ICC World Cup 2023 campaign in Dharamshala on Saturday where the latter recorded a one-sided win.
Even though Afghanistan lost, they were still lucky as key spinner Mujeeb Ur Rehman avoided a serious knee injury when he dived while fielding against Bangladesh.
The sandy and patchy outfield of Dharamshala provided no support to the struggling Afghan side.
Even though Trott mentioned the state of the outfield in his statement — saying that it is ICC’s job to assess such things — he, however, did not blame the conditions for his side’s heavy defeat.
"If you've got players unsure of whether they can dive… we see the product of cricket all around the world where players are taught, encouraged to improve their fielding," Trott said. "And when you've got players worried about getting injured… I mean, we are lucky Mujeeb hasn't got a serious knee injury towards the end.
"Yes, he probably shouldn't have dived with his knee. But we saw the other night [in Ahmedabad], Devon Conway from New Zealand early on as well, so it's something for them [the organisers] to look at. I'm definitely not putting any blame on that, but that's something to keep an eye on for the future."
Earlier today, the Tigers successfully chased down the target in 34.4 overs after limiting the Hashmatullah Shahidi-led side to a total of 156.
Najmul Hossain Shanto remained unbeaten on 59 while Mehidy Hasan hit 57. The duo dominated the chase with a 97-run stand for the third wicket.
Batting first, Afghanistan, despite a good decent start at 47-1 and 112-2 after being put into bat, suffered a dramatic batting collapse, losing their last eight wickets for just 44 runs. This led to their dismissal for a mere 156 runs, with more than 11 overs to spare.
Left-arm spinner Shakib, who had previously taken 5-29 in a corresponding World Cup fixture four years ago, claimed the crucial opening two wickets and finished with figures of 3-30 in eight overs.
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