Afghanistan players accused of being frightened by Jasprit Bumrah's terror by Head Coach Jonathan Trott

Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott stated that he was disappointed with the shot selection of his batters during their T20 World Cup 2024 Super Eight match against Team India. Jonathan Trott highlighted that the Afghanistan batters failed to execute plans effectively against ace Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah.

The Rohit Sharma-led team secured a convincing 47-run victory over Afghanistan in their Group 1 encounter at Kensington Oval in Barbados on Thursday, June 20. Jasprit Bumrah demonstrated his bowling skills during the match. Bumrah picked up three wickets and gave away just seven runs in his four overs.

The Indian bowling spearhead dismissed the informed batter, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, on his second ball. He got rid of Hazratullah Zazai on the first ball of his second over. He bagged the wicket of Najibullah on the first ball of his third over. He bowled a maiden over in the penultimate over of Afghanistan's innings.

We Needed To Play Him Better - Jonathan Trott

Speaking at the post-match press conference, Jonathan Trott stated that they had discussed plans to handle Jasprit Bumrah. Trott said that they weren't able to execute that against Bumrah, which was very disappointing.

"Obviously disappointed with a few of the shots or the decision-making. Obviously, Bumrah is going to be a key bowler for any side," Trott said.

"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.

The Men in Blue posted a total of 181 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs. Middle-order batter Suryakumar Yadav top-scored for India, scoring 53 runs off 28 balls at an outstanding strike rate of 189.29. Vice-captain Hardik Pandya scored 32 runs off 24 balls, including three boundaries and two sixes.

Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan bagged three wickets for 26 runs in his four overs. Rashid picked up the wickets of Rishabh Pant, Virat Kohli, and Shivam Dube. The right-arm leg spinner completed his quota by the 14th over of India's innings. However, the Afghanistan bowlers conceded 66 runs in the last six overs.

Rashid Khan Bowled Brilliantly - Jonathan Trott

Jonathan Trott supported Rashid's decision to bowl his quota of overs early. The Afghanistan coach emphasized the need for other bowlers to step up and execute their plans effectively to support Rashid's performance and meet the team's expectations.

"When you bowl three for 26, I think no matter when you bowl you've done a good job. 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...," Trott further stated.

"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."

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