India snubbed as Lalchand Rajput bluntly predicts Afghanistan to win T20 World Cup 2024

Lalchand Rajput, former Indian cricketer, and former Afghanistan head coach, has showered rich praise on Rashid Khan and Co. for their remarkable journey to the semifinals of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and Caribbean.

The Afghanistan Cricket Team is all set to lock horns against South Africa in the first semifinal of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 on Thursday, June 27, at the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium in Trinidad & Tobago.

My gut feeling says Afghanistan will win the ICC T20 World Cup 2024: Lalchand Rajput

Ahead of the SA vs AFG semifinal match, Rajput predicted that Afghanistan could beat South Africa and go on to become the T20 World Cup 2024 champions, overlooking his own national side, Team India.

He said that Afghanistan has a formidable spin attack, and now their pace bowling is also top-notch. The spin-friendly conditions could favor Rashid and his team in their semifinal clash against South Africa at Trinidad's slower wicket.

Lalchand Rajput was quoted as saying by Times of India: “My gut feeling says that we’ll have a new T20 World Cup winner this time, and it will be Afghanistan. If the wicket in Trinidad for the first semifinal is slow, I would rate them as favourites to win against South Africa as they have a fabulous spin attack and the Proteas can be vulnerable against quality spin.”

Hailing Afghanistan’s remarkable performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024, Rajput recalled his pre-tournament prediction about their potential to challenge top teams in the tournament.

The 2007 World Cup-winning Indian coach said that he had already predicted that Afghanistan could cause upsets against stronger teams and they did it in style against New Zealand and Australia.

Afghanistan improved massively over the years: Lalchand Rajput

Reflecting on the Afghanistan team’s progress, Rajput mentioned that they missed the opportunity to finish close games in the ODI World Cup 2023, but in this tournament, they are playing brilliantly and finishing off the matches with great determination. He was also impressed with Afghan players’ positive body language on the slow and turning pitches.

He stressed that Afghanistan’s exceptional bowling attack could effectively defend any total set by their batters, so India, England, and South Africa must be wary of the Asian side in the knockouts of the ongoing T20 World Cup in 2024.

Rajput further noted, “Before this T20 World Cup began, I had predicted that Afghanistan would upset big teams. They narrowly missed out on a few wins in the 50-over World Cup in India last year, failing to close games out. However, this year, they’re playing brilliantly. You can see the intent in their body language. They just want to do well. On the slow, turning wickets of the West Indies, their brilliant bowling is good enough to defend whatever scores their batters put up.”

At the end, the former Indian cricketer lauded Afghanistan’s head coach Jonathan Trott, and bowling coach Dwayne Bravo for their brilliant job, saying they’ve improved massively over the years. He said that earlier they were heavily dependent on their spinners, but now they have two very fine fast bowlers, Naveen-ul-Haq and Fazalhaq Farooqi, and the batters are also doing well.