Welcome Lesson: Afghanistan's final capitulation in captivating 2024 T20 World Cup journey
As enthralling as Afghanistan's fairytale run through the 2024 T20 World Cup was, an eventual anti-climatic ending felt inevitable. Thus, when they suffered a beatdown against South Africa in the semi-final, it felt more like a welcome lesson than a worrisome loss.
After all, the famous saying - 'The art of victory is learned in defeat' has been the theme of Afghanistan's stunning growth in the cricketing landscape. It should be no different on this occasion, even if fans deserve forgiveness for dreaming about a potential opening of their World Cup Trophy cabinet in two days.
Yes, Afghanistan recorded the lowest-ever T20 World Cup semi-final total of 56 among all nations, but it should take nothing away from their incredible run through the tournament. Led by the charismatic and combative Rashid Khan, the Afghans have ensured to put the cricketing world on notice with their inspired performances.
If anything, the result should be used as a building block to narrow down their glaring deficiencies rather than flushing it down as an aberration.
Openers' eventual failure switches the middle-order signal from 'Orange' to 'Red'
Even as Afghanistan were going through their memorable run, the openers being the be-all and end-all of the entire batting lineup was an undercurrent warning sign. And unfortunately, the orange signal finally turned red at the most inopportune time for the Afghans in the semi-final.
The opening pair of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran were dismissed for only two runs, triggering a foreseeable collapse. The rest of the lineup saw not a single batter cross 10 as Afghanistan capitulated after a sensational bowling display from the South Africans.
Yet, the dismal middle-order showing was no one-off occurrence. A look at the final numbers of the two openers and the rest of the main batters makes for a sorry reading even as Afghanistan ultimately enjoyed a successful campaign.
Gurbaz and Zadran combined for 512 runs in 16 innings, while all the others totaled 410 runs in 52 innings in the T20 World Cup. While the opening duo averaged an impressive 35.12 and 28.17, respectively, no other batter averaged even 15, with the next best being Karim Janat's 14.33.
In the five Afghanistan wins during the tournament, the opening stand averaged a staggering 88.40 per inning, including three-century partnerships. Conversely, the openers averaged a dismal 5.66 per innings in their three losses.
Skipper Rashid Khan rightly pointed to this at the post-match presentation by saying:
"Some work to be done, specially in the middle order to take the innings deep. As I said, it is always learning for our team and we have achieved good results so far but we will come back doing more hard work, specially in the batting department."
There is only so much heavy lifting two batters can do before the law of averages catches up and Afghanistan will ultimately have to get this aspect right for them to make deep runs in future ICC events.
Yet, being exposed and knowing exactly where they are lacking is a much better place to be than searching for different solutions in several departments.
How going the 50-over route in selection could have been Afghanistan's final piece to the puzzle
Considering the fragile middle order, Afghanistan may have been better served going in the 50-over route in terms of selection than the T20 norm of going with more all-rounders.
Think of the ODI World Cup last year and who were Afghanistan's top performers with the bat. Skipper Hasmatullah Shahidi was their third-leading scorer with 310 runs at an average of 51.66 and the ever-reliable Rahmat Shah was fourth with 320 runs at an average of 40.
Yet, both batters were left out of their squad for the T20 World Cup because Afghanistan followed the usual strategy of packing the side with bits-and-pieces all-rounders over specialist batters.
While there isn't much wrong with such a plan, it does come at the cost of regular batting collapses if the roles of the middle-order floaters aren't clear and the players lack experience. With Afghanistan's plans mostly centered around putting up par totals in the range of 140-160 and allowing their world-class bowlers to suffocate the opposition, including specialist middle-order batters like Rahmat and Shahidi could have done the trick.
There was also 23-year-old wicketkeeper-batter Ikram Alikhil, who averaged over 44 with impressive cameos during the 2023 ODI World Cup but was bereft of an opportunity in the ongoing tournament.
Head coach Jonathan Trott called out the middle-order for their no-show throughout the tournament in his post-match press conference.
"We've perhaps been a bit too reliant on Gurbaz and Ibrahim to get runs. Nobody else has got runs. And we need to find a reason for that. We need to get more batters in who are going to score runs and be more consistent like the openers have been and give us a chance in games. So that's the project for going forward. We've got to find batters who can bat in the middle order in T20 cricket. I have an idea of who they are and the players that are going to be doing that," said Trott.
Until they scratch and claw to find the right middle-order batters ideally suited for T20 cricket, Afghanistan could adopt a more 50-over team selection.
In a hypothetical parallel universe, with the pitch being as challenging in the semi-final, the above trio shoring up the middle order might have helped Afghanistan reach a score of 120 and made it a competitive game.
Afghanistan's organic yet ahead-of-time growth promises plenty
It took South Africa 32 years to finally qualify for their maiden World Cup final and teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have still not played in a World Cup semi-final despite playing for an eternity from the 1980s and 90s.
Yet, Afghanistan, playing white-ball cricket since only 2009 were just two wins away from playing an ODI World Cup semi-final last year and now partaking in one in the ongoing T20 World Cup. It points to their wonderful structure, culture, and developmental schemes, starting with the ageless Mohammad Nabi holding fort in the infant years.
Then came the man likely to go down as arguably their greatest cricketer, Rashid Khan, and Afghanistan have looked back since. Inspired by his never-say-die attitude, skill, and charisma, several spinners like Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, and Qais Ahmad, among others have made their way into the mix.
It led to Afghanistan staying relevant and competitive with the spin-to-win strategy for a while before a well-rounded pace battery was formed with Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen Ul Haq, and all-rounders Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib and Karim Janat.
Finally, Afghanistan discovered their mini-Tendulkar-Sehwag-esque opening partnership with the solid Ibrahim Zadran and the spectacular Rahmanullah Gurbaz.
With a well-rounded and relatively young core established, Afghanistan must continue building consistency, identifying and addressing areas of concern, and achieving success across conditions to turn this surprisingly incredible 2024 T20 World Cup campaign into a more regular affair.
Afghanistan's ultimate rise to fame would be if and when they can turn into the side where fans are shocked at them not qualifying for a semi-final rather than surprised at them playing in one.