Rashid Khan admits T20 World Cup losses to SA, NZ haunt Afghanistan's campaign

"To be honest, it's pretty hard. It's very, very hard to lose that game where we had it in our hand a couple of times and then it just slips off your hand and it disappoints you. It doesn't go away from your mind, especially that game.

"Like, the game we played against Australia in 2023 World Cup in Wankhede, it never goes out of the mind, until we won against them in the 2024 (T20) World Cup and then slowly it got out of the mind," Rashid told reporters ahead of Afghanistan facing UAE in Group D clash at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Monday morning.

Defeats to South Africa and New Zealand have left Afghanistan on the brink of early elimination from the mega event, after racing to semi-finals in 2024. But Rashid is still holding on to a glimmer of hope for Afghanistan to progress to the Super Eights.

"It's is quite disappointing. For the last one and a half years, we worked hard for this. The most important thing is what mindset we played and the effort we put in. I think that remains so important. It's going to help us not only in the upcoming games, but in the upcoming cricket we have.

"So there are lots of positive things we can take from those two games, but still you don't know anything can happen. The other day Zimbabwe beat Australia so we hope and let's see if we get a little bit of a chance, but more importantly, in the last two games, we have to put all the effort in," he added.

Rashid further said the lack of regular matches against leading nations like South Africa and New Zealand had left them underprepared for high-pressure contests. "I don't think much has gone wrong. We played good cricket and were a little unlucky. You saw the last match, we were very close, we were in the second super over. I think it shows that we put in the effort.

"But as a team, if you don't get a chance to play against a big team, that's what happens. If we played more T20Is against South Africa, New Zealand, we would have had an idea of where this team can beat us and where we can do better. If you play with them once a year, and that too in a World Cup event, that is such a time where you do not have the choice of making a mistake.

"If you play two matches in four days against New Zealand and South Africa, then your World Cup can end in four days and it happened with us. We lost both the matches in four days and are out of the World Cup mostly. So, this pressure is different. You have to be mentally and physically ready. If you make a small mistake, you're out of the competition. If you look at it, that's one thing, but more importantly, the biggest thing is to play more.

"If you play with them, you'll get an idea. If you don't play, then they'll come with new planning every time, which you don't know how to play against. Like we saw with New Zealand, they came with an aggressive mindset. Imagine if we had played a series with them before and we knew what would be their mindset if they lose a couple of early wickets.

"We were not expecting them to come harder at that time, but they came and got success. So nothing else and the more we play against them we're going to get better, not only in the World Cup, but in bilateral series as well," he concluded.

- IANS