Spinners will sparkle but can the batsmen shine?

On a Pakan’s talk show Hasna Mana Hai, former captain Rashid Latif created a stir on Sunday night saying the talismanic Rashid Khan was more influential for Afghanan than Wasim Akram for Pakan. “Rashid [Khan] has truly put Afghanan on the map and played a key role in earning them recognition. He is a more prominent figure than Wasim Akram. With all due respect, Rashid’s impact in cricket surpasses that of Akram,” Latif, a former Afghanan coach, stated.At the Champions Trophy, Rashid Khan will yet again lead a formidable spin attack that has been instrumental for Afghanan’s international success. The breakout team of the last two ICC World Cups – both ODI in 2023 and T20 in 2024 – faces a potential speed bump, though. Like the colourful ‘jingle trucks’ and ornately painted inter-city buses, batsmen are expected to strut their stuff on the belter pitches Pakan rolls out for this 50-over tournament. Given how brittle their own batting is against spinners, all indications are that these tracks will actually resemble Pakan highways.
This immediately jogs the cursor away from Afghanan’s renowned spin bowlers – who won’t shy away from the fight – but puts to test their batting order, not exactly as glamorous or feted as their tweakers. There is Rashid, the 40-year-old Mohammad Nabi in possibly his last ODI series, and the two left-armers, relatively known Noor Ahmad and the mostly unknown, 20-year-old slow left-arm Nangyal Kharoti. Mystery-spinner Ghazanfar missed out due to a late injury, but Kharoti has the potential to send their first opponents into a nightmare whirl.
Story continues below this ad

Dumping out Pakan and England in the 50-over World Cup was swell. Reaching the T20 World semifinals in the Caribbean after beating New Zealand and Australia was ‘sweet-as’ like the Aussies would say. But for the newbies, getting out of the group at CT 2025 playing on batting beauties in Lahore and Karachi, lumped in with Australia, South Africa and England, could be a potential reality check or sternest test of their batting cred, at any rate.
Days of romanticising their refreshing emergence and the charming novelty as ‘Graveyard of cricket empires’ are slightly wearing off. Shapoor Zadran retiring earlier this month revived flashback moments of their first-ever World Cup win against Scotland in 2015 – when his flowing mane became the iconic image of the birth of a new cricketing contender. But ten years on, it is the spine of their batting that will be gleaned for if it can crank up the big scores, pace the 50 over acceleration and consently contend for the 300+ endgames that will play out over the next few days.
As such, Afghanan’s mainstreaming (them being regular features) was most evident, right after they lost their first warm-up game to Pakan a good 150 runs. Like every argumentative cricket country, their fans began muttering over whether Hashmatullah Shahidi, a trifle out of form, ought to be replaced Sediqullah Atal, the reserve opener. When Hashmat focusing on ‘fashion and hairstyle’ was raked up unnecessarily and their batsmen got roundly scolded on Instagram comments for going down to ‘Pakan Z team’ (an exaggeration), you knew AfghanAtalanoo (Team Afg) has well and truly joined the cricket-verse with its constantly truculent fan base. They are properly and sufficiently cantankerous about cricket.
It was the delightful exasperation of their own fans with Pashto baritoned verdicts like ‘bekra performance’ (terrible), ‘Pa sharmono washarmawaly lanat pa taso sha’ (have some shame), tawkali player (sputtering), for the aggregate batsmanship of Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shahidi, Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmat Shah – that summed up their frustration.Story continues below this ad
“Khan baghaira Khatami da team’ (This team is finished without Rashid Khan) – however, was the supporters’ final SOS plea, and Rashid Khan’s belated entry to the Karachi hotel, having missed the first practice match, was set to serious martial percussions a grand-entry reel that went the title, ‘The Arrival of Greatness.’ In the stylishly shot video, the camera focussed on his branded travel sneakers, his strolley, the wrwatch band in camouflage print, and a final face-reveal in the end, while Babar Azam, etc played bit-parts leading to a crescendo.
Khan will need help, though, and it can well come from the unknown left-arm spinner. Kharoti debuted against Ireland, and left a fair few batsmen pinned to the crease one moment and the next, reluctantly trudging back quite boggled his quicker ball that skids on, goes straight and tipples the stumps. At Sharjah, last September, he picked 4/26 to help them drub mighty South Africa 177 runs. He also has a wicket celebration where he jumps in a 180 turn, like a disco dancer and finishes with a He Man sky f pump. It’d all sound very cartoonish, if you didn’t know just how much Saffers tend to stew in these repetitive demon-reels that their minds nurse. They open against Afghanan at the CT, and could help entrench the fear of the Afghan spin sorcerers for Rashid’s band of brothers barely need help from tracks.
Younis Khan, the trump card
Still, it is the Afghan batsmen who will need to put runs on the board, to allow their tweakers a chance for chokeholds. And the Afghan board cannily roped in Pakani Younis Khan – like they did Ajay Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo earlier – to help them break down the batting approach. Younis worked with them in 2022 when he extensively scribbled with red, green and black markers on the white drawing boards, explaining partnership building, full face of the bat and using the crease. However, coach Jonathan Trott will need to do more than to get them to run ones and twos and set them 5-over batting targets for a ODI playbook, on the Pakan pitches. 300+ scores are basic now.
So the truly breakout star of the show might well be the player Trott has long backed to pull off wonders – Azmatullah Omarzai. The all-rounder has 17 of 24 innings in the last two years where he got into double digits, and scored seven fifties and a century at an average of 95.11. He also has some mean pace when he opens the bowling. Story continues below this ad
Ricky Ponting, who stated that Glenn Maxwell singularly stopped what ought to have been an Afghan win in 2023 WC, was clear Omarzai was the key. “Afghanan have all-round talent, and they play well in slow and spin conditions. But Azmat who was ODI player of the year, can bat in middle order and bowl upfront. So now we have a team that can do a lot of new ball damage and not be reliant on spin as before. They’ve added a lot more depth over the last few years.” The Afghans could well steer the jingle trucks and light up the highways – with or without spin.