T20 World Cup 2024: Afghanistan batters failed the Bumrah test, says coach Trott

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

Jasprit Bumrah celebrates after dismissing Rahmanullah Gurbaz during India’s T20 World Cup 2024 Super Eight match against Afghanistan in Bridgetown. | Photo Credit: K.R. DEEPAK | THE HINDU

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, with the India pace spearhead claiming three Afghan wickets and conceding only seven runs in four impeccable overs at Kensington Oval.

IND vs AFG, T20 World Cup 2024: Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah shine as India strolls past Afghanistan

Bumrah deceived Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Afghanistan’s leading scorer in the tournament, with a 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.

“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,” he added.

India posted a strong total of 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,” he said.

Even if Afghanistan was unable to take wickets the bowlers should have been trying to stem the runs and put pressure on the Indian batters, he added.

“Wicket taking, and certainly in T20 and on these types of wickets, comes from creating pressure. So you need to find a way to create pressure on these types of wickets where there’s a short boundary and with the wind. So you need to (make sure) if you’re not getting wickets, you’re not leaking for too many runs. For me, we just weren’t able to do that,” Trott said.

Afghanistan faces Australia in its next match in Kingstown on Saturday.