Analysing whether Afghanistan are going the Bangladesh way
Afghanistan's win against Sri Lanka has been hailed by each and everyone in the cricketing circle. The Afghan cricket team is being touted as the next big thing in cricket. Their spinners have taken the world by storm, especially Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
As per the experts, if Afghanistan can get their act together in the batting department then it will be a difficult proposition for most of the teams. Which makes sense, since they have world class spinners at their disposal.
Afghanistan play most of their cricket in Asia which is a heaven for spin bowlers and most of the Afghan success can be attributed to their spinners. Now the question is, what about their pace bowling?
Till the time a team is playing in Asia, they can achieve success through spinners, but, the moment you step out of Asia, you have to rely upon your fast bowlers to get good results. Afghanistan do not have much in the fast bowling department to show for. If they are going to be a force in world cricket, then they would be required to play good cricket outside Asia as well and that would need a good cluster of fast bowlers, which they, unfortunately, don't have right now.
This euphoria gives you a sense of Deja vu, another Asian team went through this phase, promised a lot and then flattered to deceive outside Asia. That team is Bangladesh, they also had some world class spinners and achieved a lot of success through those spinners, but, only in the sub-continent.
Test cricket is the ultimate benchmark for any cricket team. Bangladesh never had world class fast bowlers who could achieve success for them in Test cricket. They have some good fast bowlers like Mashrafe Mortaza and Mustafizur Rahman, but their game is more suited to limited overs cricket. Mortaza bowled with good pace in the initial phase of his career, but then injuries came along and he modified his run-up and action, which implied that he lost few yards of pace. Rubel Hussain is too erratic to be called a good test bowler.
Even after many years of exposure to test cricket, Bangladesh are still struggling to find some good fast bowlers who can help them to achieve success at Test level.
Afghanistan seems to be following the same path. They have a team for sub-continental conditions but nothing beyond that. This team is one dimensional at present.
Their recent success against big teams augurs well for their future, but at the same time, if they want this success to continue then they need to have a team for all conditions. Unless and until they have a good pace attack, they won't be able to get success beyond a point.