Afghanistan batters failed the Bumrah test, says coach Trott

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, – Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott was disappointed with the shot selection of his batters in their defeat by India in Thursday’s T20 World Cup Super Eight match and said they failed to execute their plans for facing Jasprit Bumrah.

Bumrah was almost unplayable once again, India’s pace spearhead claiming three Afghan wickets and conceding only seven runs in four impeccable overs at Kensington Oval.

Bumrah deceived Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Afghanistan’s leading scorer in the tournament, with clever change of pace and got the better of the other opener, Hazratullah Zazai, with an off-cutter that resulted in a leading edge at point.

“Obviously disappointed with a few of the shots or the decision-making,” Trott said after their 47-run loss in the Group 1 contest.

“Obviously, Bumrah is going to be a key bowler for any side. For India, he’s crucial and we needed to play him better. His figures suggest we didn’t play him very well.

“We’d obviously spoken about it and how we were going to play him. So, we weren’t able to execute that and, yeah, that’s very disappointing.”

India posted a strong 181-8 riding Suryakumar Yadav’s second successive half-century.

Afghan captain Rashid Khan, also their main strike bowler, finished his quota by the 14th over and India milked 66 runs from the final six overs.

Trott, however, backed Rashid’s decision to exhaust his overs so early and said other bowlers should have stepped up.

“When you bowl three for 26, I think no matter when you bowl you’ve done a good job,” Trott said of Rashid.

“It’s not just one bowler. Other people have to bowl the 16 other overs to be bowled, and it’s the responsibility of other bowlers to be able to execute the plans that we put in place …

“I thought Rash bowled brilliantly today. He has high expectations of himself and he delivered today. Everybody else, could follow suit. That would be great.”

Afghanistan face Australia in their next match in Kingstown on Saturday.

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